Two Republican Senators are facing calls to resign over using insider knowledge to sell stocks

[ChibiMofo]

Resigning isn't nearly enough.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51976484

Two US Republican Senators are facing calls to resign over allegations they used insider knowledge to sell shares before prices fell due to coronavirus fears.

Richard Burr reportedly dumped up to $1.7m (£1.45m) of stocks last month.

Kelly Loeffler is reported to have sold holdings worth up to $3m in a series of transactions beginning the same day as a Senate briefing on the virus.

As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr Burr receives nearly daily briefings on threats to US national security,

On 7 February, shortly after the first case of coronavirus was reported, Mr Burr wrote on Fox News that the US government was “better prepared than ever” to tackle an outbreak.

But a week later, when President Donald Trump assured the public that the virus would not hit America hard, Mr Burr and his wife sold at least $628,000 and as much as $1.72 million in stocks. Two weeks after that, he gave the speech obtained by NPR:

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/19/8181...-questions-about-private-comments-on-covid-19

 

[Joe88]

Dianne Feinstein now included
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...-before-coronavirus-crash-reports/ar-BB11rIYo

 

[notimp]

Addressing the Tar Hill Circle at a private lunch-in in the Capital Hill Club.

(starts at about min 10)



I'll crosspost it into the corruption thread later..

 

[omgcat]

Dianne Feinstein now included
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...-before-coronavirus-crash-reports/ar-BB11rIYo

read the article:

“All of Senator Feinstein’s assets are in a blind trust,” the spokesman, Tom Mentzer, told the Times. “She has no involvement in her husband’s financial decisions.”

Feinstein said her husband sold shares in a cancer therapy company that “is unrelated to any work on the coronavirus and the sale was unrelated to the situation.”

 

[chrisrlink]

what party? my money's on republican

 

[morvoran]

It's unfortunate that the media never focuses on the Democrats who do such unethical activities such as Tlaib, Omar, AOC, Pelosi, Schumer, etc..... If they did, I guess there wouldn't be any Democrats still in office or not under investigation.
Oh well, I guess as long as the sheeple keep voting them in, the swamp will never be drained completely.

 

[chrisrlink]

well duh republicans are never "for the common folk" only the multimillionaires and such the middle class republicans are just tools to get voted in probaably cause the american public are too stupid to even think for themselves

 

[morvoran]

Bah, bah, bah!!!!!!

I had to run this through the sheeple to human translator and made some corrections for you -
" duh democrats are never "for the common folk" only the welfare babies and such the social security leeches are just tools to get voted in probaahbly cause I'm are too stupid to even think for myself"

You can keep being blind or open your eyes and see what your wonderful democrat politicians are "doing for you" by keeping you poor and needy.

 

[chrisrlink]

well AHCA WAS suppose to be a mirror image of canada's HC system until the republican controlled congress during the obama era frankenstied the shit out of the bill (unless you forgot to watch the news and read up on the unaltered bill btw that bill still saved my butt from aging out of my parent's insurance due to my cerebraal palsy which saved me tons out of pocket expenses for medical

 

[Joe88]

read the article:

“All of Senator Feinstein’s assets are in a blind trust,” the spokesman, Tom Mentzer, told the Times. “She has no involvement in her husband’s financial decisions.”

Feinstein said her husband sold shares in a cancer therapy company that “is unrelated to any work on the coronavirus and the sale was unrelated to the situation.”

If her husband is running it then its not a blind trust, she was receiving classified briefings, then her husband conveniently sold millions of $ of stock before the market tanked

Now the law in question unfortunately has alot of loopholes so all 4 members will most likely not be punished in anyway, all 4 has put out different reasons why they sold their stock holding (I heard something on the news, read something on the internet, my stock broker told me to do it, someone else makes the decisions, ect...). Without direct evidence (audio recording, phone call, txt message, or email) it will hard to do anything.

 

[morvoran]

well AHCA WAS suppose to be a mirror image of canada's HC system until the republican controlled congress during the obama era frankenstied the shit out of the bill (unless you forgot to watch the news and read up on the unaltered bill btw that bill still saved my butt from aging out of my parent's insurance due to my cerebraal palsy which saved me tons out of pocket expenses for medical

Well, thank goodness for you that it didn't mirror Canada's healthcare system. You might not be with us today if the Dem's destroyed our healthcare like that. For the rest, you may want to revisit the history on Obamacare. Obviously, somebody lied to you.

 

[Taleweaver]

To be honest : I don't want to be the judge to rule over a case like this,and that is exactly because the US government is the US government.

The thing is : it's illegal to sell stock with prior public unknown information, but what exactly is 'public unknown'? The sanctions the US would soon implement, certainly, but the truth about the severity and contagion of Corona were publicly known at February 7th.

I admit it would be kind of funny to see Burr and those other two legally argue that Trump's words credibility is worthless, but to everyone but Republicans... Sorry : everyone but OTHER Republicans... This was a known fact for years. (1)

So... Perhaps Republicans are outraged because other Republicans don't believe their president, but as someone not in that club I can't really blame them for actually thinking.

I'd blame Burr for lying on fox news, but why? For one thing, a week's an eternity in a situation like this, and most of all : it's fox. If you believe they usually bring news on their channel you 're to dumb to have an opinion when you do catch them on a lie.

(1)heck... If I owned stock on eg. Swiss cheese and Trump came on television saying Swiss cheese was fine, that in itself would cause me to check whether the status on Swiss cheese.

what party? my money's on republican

Erm... Their party's in the thread title, so I don't think anyone's going to take that bet.

 

[notimp]

It's unfortunate that the media never focuses on the Democrats who do such unethical activities such as Tlaib, Omar, AOC, Pelosi, Schumer, etc.....

Are you insane?

First, you just pick five names at random of people that havent done something like this. Than you accuse them of a crime.

Then you accuse the media of misreporting.

Then you accuse the media of bias.

Then you overlook, that Dianne Feinstein (Democrat) is also accused of insider trading in this very case.

Then you pick fights.

You have never ever added anything productive to this forum. You pick an insane evangelist radio shock jockey - thats probably in an assisted work program as your avatar, you lie left and right and demean others.

And for some reason, we all still are supposed to deal with you?

When can you get it in your head, that you pick the worst possible sources (an insane person), and then complain that people are not more receptive to your extreme views?

Your are kind of doing this 'living' thing all wrong. If you want anything other than social isolation.

Its problematic enough, that people see dems and reps as clubs they can get their opinions from, But you are the guy that always strifes for having one of those clubs eradicated, so the world finally becomes just, by the other club winning.

Sorry - but can we get serious moderating action on you some time soon?

Because we are alway in line after your statements trying to bring people up to level, that they are dealing with a borderline personality that always spews theories, that are unfounded lies and second hand projections of an insane person (Jesse Lee Peterson).

You are worse than people from the infowars cult.

edit: And you are excusing people from side of the fence from commiting crimes, because "the other side would do it as well - the media just isnt telling you".

Boy, you would have worked well in a society that needed no laws, brains, or morals. Just plain ambition and loyalty.

 

[Taleweaver]

And for some reason, we all still are supposed to deal with you?

I have to disagree there. Just put him on ignore. It leads to some strange effects (I initially thought you were calling me insane ), but it's not like you miss something important.

 

[notimp]

I dont put people on ignore. Its a quirk of mine. Free speech and all. (Although I did shout for moderation here (mostly for effect).)

 

[cearp]

@Taleweaver - yeah I agree, it's no surprise that the economy would most likely go bad, so why not sell your stocks?
I guess I don't understand it all, but it doesn't seem a bad idea, or like insider knowledge to me.

 

[chrisrlink]

well cots is gone i'm supprised this guy's still here being a troll

 

[Hanafuda]

well cots is gone i'm supprised this guy's still here being a troll

Your posts are just as myopic and disruptive to reasoned discourse here. 90% of what you post is vitriol.

 

[FAST6191]

I am going to wait and see on a court case/investigation for this one as I can't see clear evidence of wrongdoing but enough to warrant a further look into things. Suspension would also seem to be a rather harsh measure. As far as public statements go then one of the few things most governments actually worked out was panicking people are morons and cause more damage than the thing they are nominally panicking about, and make actual responses to it harder. Speaking with your mates is a different matter, though that would still be no excuse for dropping information that constituted insider dealings.
Late January I was seeing insurance claims shoot through the roof for any number of things* (speaking to the same people it is worse now) along with supply chain worries, and it looked like it was going to pop in some way. The bloody BBC was reporting on it in late January, and while China's information was of rather dubious merit there were enough people able to read between the lines and talking publicly of it, so it was hardly news in February. We have had nice little panics before and they tend to have predictable effects on the market (does any investment channel spend more than 2 hours without talking about investor confidence?) -- the article mentions this was before the market "showed signs of volatility" but that hardly means much; if you are long in the market and leaping at such signs you might well already be behind the curve.

*plenty of people cancelling holidays way into the future (and then present) and moving accordingly. Airlines were already dropping like flies this last few years, and plenty more circling the drain, with cash flow issues and no reserves/credit usually being the cause. To that end companies/sectors troubled by such things were already on shaky ground.

It might well be that they jumped and knew things that would confirm markets would tank and thus warrant some kind of slap for it, however it could also just have been prudent or loss avoiding.

Insider trading is not behaviour to condone and resignation (or worse) would probably be fitting as a result but the stuff above fails to make a great case in and of itself. Sound basis for an investigation but clear cut case less so.

 

[WD_GASTER2]

Dianne Feinstein now included
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...-before-coronavirus-crash-reports/ar-BB11rIYo

thank you for pointing this out. it bring me shame that this lady repesents my state. I am left leaning but balls and strikes should be called on both sides.

quite frankly in times like these they should resign at the very least. The republicans involved on this are being jackasses during interviews as well