Senator Dumped Up to $1.6 Million of Stock After Reassuring Public About Coronavirus Preparedness

[demmiblue]

Source: ProPublica

Intelligence Chair Richard Burr’s selloff came around the time he was receiving daily briefings on the health threat.

Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $582,029 and $1.56 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 29 separate transactions.

As the head of the intelligence committee, Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security. His committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings around this time, according to a Reuters story.

A week after Burr’s sales, the stock market began a sharp decline and has lost about 30% since.

On Thursday, Burr came under fire after NPR obtained a secret recording from Feb. 27, in which the lawmaker gave a VIP group at an exclusive social club a much more dire preview of the economic impact of the coronavirus than what he had told the public.

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/senator-dumped-up-to-1-6-million-of-stock-after-reassuring-public-about-coronavirus-preparedness

[TreasonousBastard]

1. I believe that is illegal, but..

apparently senators do not have to live by the rules they legislated.

[catsudon]

11. yes

House and Senate members have rigged the insider trading laws to exempt themselves.

I'd like to know who else knew

[mobeau69]

26. Correct. Can't believe this hasn't been a bigger issue for some time now. nt

[OnDoutside]

32. So Chris Collins is in jail for what then ?

[PaulRevere08]

24. It is a clear violation of the STOCK Act.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act

Lets see if anything actually happens.

[catsudon]

28. look at this

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/473281-house-passes-bill-to-explicitly-ban-insider-trading
does that mean it is a law now?

[Jamastiene]

2. Is anyone beginning to notice the most corrupt and out of control

Republicans are from NC? There are far too many of the worst corrupt ones here to not notice. I wish people would finally listen about the NC GOP. They need to be investigated.

[Traildogbob]

12. Tillis, Meadows and Burr

Welcome to not only gerrymandering but also illiteracy. The knuckle draggers here still love them all. Trump shit everywhere. There is this small local grill here in WNC that still allows smoking inside. Fried with gravy on everything. Always packed with tRumpers. Passed it just a bit ago, big sign out front, "we are open, no bugs no fear", also Jesus signs abound. MAGA! No liberals, no socialists. Except 90 percent are on SS, Medicare, Medicade, and food stamps.

[Jamastiene]

17. Gerrymandered with racist intent "with surgical precision."

I will never forget that court ruling. They not only gerrymandered the state, especially my district (I used to be in the 8th until they literally picked two or three households in several tiny sections of other counties to call us the 9th district now) but the court literally said they did it "with surgical precision" to be racist.

[Traildogbob]

18. Criminal Christians

[Progressive Jones]

25. Confederate trash taking it out on the rest of the nation. These losers just can't get over it. nt

[Totally Tunsie]

3. Martha Stewart will not be happy until she can send baked goods

to his cell.

[hay rick]

10. LOL.

[Native]

4. I am now more fucking angry about all of this than anything else. And I guess that's a good thing?

[dchill]

23. I don't know how good it is, but it's damn sure warranted.

[bluestarone]

5. Would be interesting to know

How MANY more RETHUGS did the very same thing? I bet the number is HIGH!!

[redstatebluegirl]

6. Anyone in that room who sold based on this info are guilty of insider trading.

They paid for the right to meet with this powerful person and then used that inside info in their trading decisions.

[IronLionZion]

7. Dude sounds like a real piece of shit

selfish and greedy.

Surely other Senators must have gotten the same briefings though? What did they do about it?

[Jamastiene]

16. He is.

I live in NC. He is one of the really bad Repubs, meaning worse than most of the others. Most NC Republicans are the worst ones out there. As bad as they are, that is saying something.

[dem4decades]

8. Can anybody question him? Any fucking body?

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Only the Senate can bring charges against a Senator...

and it's not often that a Senator is tossed for illegal doings.

[dem4decades]

15. I'm sure Mr. Chao will get right on it.

[UpInArms]

20. Moscow Mitch will get on that

... like .... never

[Me.]

9. Insider Trading

[marble falls]

13. Martha Steward got put in prison for doing the same sort of thing worth a million less than that.

[VarryOn]

19. Politicians at the federal level...

Should be required to put their holdings in a blind trust, and there should be aggressive disclosure on making money for 3-5 years after leaving office. No telling what Burr has made in office! Of course, fat chance getting that law passed by those most affected. I'd include appointed positions as well.

[GeorgeGist]

21. What a Creep.

[SunSeeker]

22. K & R for exposure.

[VMA131Marine]

27. And now Sen Kelly Loeffler R-GA is implicated

https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-kelly-loeffler-dumped-millions-in-stock-after-coronavirus-briefing

“The Senate’s newest member sold off seven figures worth of stock holdings in the days and weeks after a private, all-senators meeting on the novel coronavirus that subsequently hammered U.S. equities.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) reported the first sale of stock jointly owned by her and her husband on Jan. 24, the very day that her committee, the Senate Health Committee, hosted a private, all-senators briefing from administration officials, including the CDC director and Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institutes of Health of the United States, on the coronavirus. “

[Bernardo de La Paz]

29. Burr one of only 3 (three) Senators in 2012 who opposed the insider trading bill, the STOCK act. .nt

[CRK7376]

30. Aren't I lucky

to have such a fine outstanding Senator...NOT!!!! The good news is Maybe this slimeball will be charged and convicted.

[Gothmog]

31. Lock him up

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Dawson Leery]

33. The Republican party is the most corrupt enterprise on the Earth.