Yesterday, the morning news covered the revelation that Senator Richard Burr, following the private Senatorial briefing on the novel coronavirus on January 24, warned wealthy contributors to his Senate campaign that the expected hit to the American people and the economy was far greater than what was being presented publicly. At the time, people were claiming offense because he was seen as covering for the President’s inaction.
A day later, with just a little bit of digging, another reason has emerged. Burr dumped stock worth over a million dollars which was invested primarily in hotel companies… an industry which is among those hardest hit by the covid-19 crisis and which would have been predicted to be devastated in any reasonable damage model.
Burr’s apparent misdeed was capitalizing on insider knowledge and attempting to pass that valuable information to his patrons. Once people started looking, though, he was revealed as not being alone at engaging in sudden stock dumps following the briefing.
The most egregious and obvious offender is Kelly Loeffler, a fellow Republican Senator from Georgia. She had engaged in no trades through most of January, then suddenly sold millions of dollars of stock in companies which would be negatively impacted by coronavirus, only to follow that by purchasing stock in companies which aid in work-from-home software. Even the non-excuse of not realizing that insider trading is illegal is unbelievable in her case, because her husband part of the management of the New York Stock Exchange.
Two more Senators have also been found to have engaged in sales with very questionable timing: Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and Republican Senator James Inhofe have been recognized as engaging in large stock sales shortly following the briefing.
It’s only been one day. There will undoubtedly be further investigation – of Senators, of their aides, and of Administration officials – and it is reasonable to expect further revelations of malfeasance in the days ahead.
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