US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband bought up to $5 million in computer chip stock one month before a Congress vote which may grant the industry a huge government boost, new financial congressional disclosures have revealed.
House Speaker Pelosi’s disclosure indicated that her husband Paul Pelosi purchased 20,000 shares in NVIDIA, one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, on June 17.
According to online trading sources, NVIDIA stocks were valued at $158.80 on that day, suggesting that Paul spent around $3,176,000 for the stocks. Government documents, however, value the transaction to be worth between "$1,000,001 and $5,000,000".
Likewise during June, the 82-year-old sold 10,000 shares in Visa - also declared to be worth between $1 million and $5 million - and 50 call options in Apple, valued between $100,000 and $250,000, the records indicated.
Senators are due to vote on a bipartisan competition bill as early as Tuesday, according to Reuters. The bill looks to shore up domestic semiconductor manufacturing and offer tax credits for production with a $52 billion state subsidy. It has been publically backed by Paul’s wife and Democrat heavyweight, Nancy Pelosi, who claimed that it will “supercharge” the industry.
Although there's no official indication that avid stock trader Paul broke the law, Craig Holman, a Capitol Hill lobbyist for the left-leaning think tank Public Citizen, told the Daily Caller that the disclosure is alarming.
“It certainly raises the specter that Paul Pelosi could have access to some insider legislative information. This is the reason why there is a stock trading app that exclusively monitors Paul’s trading activity and then its followers do likewise,” Holman argued.
Paul Pelosi is known for trading tens of millions of dollars worth of stock each year. His latest trades came as Congress is deciding whether lawmakers and their spouses should be able to buy, sell or hold individual stocks at all.
Last year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was reportedly the 14th wealthiest member of Congress with an estimated net value exceeding $46 million.