OAN Staff James Meyers
11:43 AM – Wednesday, September 25, 2024
The Pelosi’s are back making major moves in the stock market. The husband of the 52nd speaker of the House, Paul, unloaded over $500,000 worth of Visa stocks less than three months before the massive credit card company was hit with federal antitrust charges, according to public documents.
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Visa was hit with a lawsuit on Tuesday that alleged the company has illegally monopolized the debit card market, after a years-long review conducted by the Justice Department’s antitrust unit.
Visa allegedly used its dominant market position to penalize customers and merchants who use competing payment processors, according to court papers.
Antitrust officials also alleged that Visa forces financial tech firms to work with it by threatening to penalize those that don’t.
Christopher Josephs, the tech entrepreneur who runs the “Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker” on X (Twitter), posted a screenshot of a congressional filing on July 3rd, which revealed that the former House Speaker’s husband, Paul, had sold 2,000 shares of Visa worth between $500,000 and $1 million.
Additionally, the disclosure form shows that Pelosi’s transaction is marked “SP,” or spouse, which is a reference to her husband, Paul.
During the time of his stock pullout, there was no public indication that an antitrust lawsuit against the company was on the horizon. Shares dropped by 5.5% at $272.78.
“Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,” the congresswoman’s spokesperson told the New York Post.
Despite her claims, critics have argued that Pelosi’s career in Washington, D.C., gives potential access to non-public information that is relevant to reaping success in the stock market.
“At various critical inflection points in history, members of our government have engaged in trading at a time which their conflicts are called into question,” Ron Geffner, a former enforcement attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission, told the New York Post.
“Before public opinion judges Pelosi unfairly, it is important to determine who engaged in the transaction on her behalf as well as whether it was part of a broader change of her portfolio,” Geffner added.
The July 3rd disclosure also revealed that Paul Pelosi sold 2,500 shares of Tesla, and he bought up stock in Nvidia and Broadcom.
The former speaker of the House has a nine-figure net worth thanks to her and her husband’s stock and investment portfolio. Pelosi has also been known for resisting calls from lawmakers to ban legislators and their spouses from trading stocks due to a very apparent conflict of interest.
Visa said it was asked to hand over information that pertained to the company’s conduct in its U.S.-based debit card business.
“We believe Visa’s US debit practices are in compliance with applicable laws,” the company said at the time.
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