Following news reports that President Trump gave guests at his Maralago resort a heads up regarding military action on Iran, Dem Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen have sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), calling for an insider trading investigation.
You’ll remember that right after the announcement of the U.S. strike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, defense stock prices spiked. Northop Grumman’s stock for example rose by 5%, Lockheed Martin’s by 3.6% and Raytheon’s by 1.5% hours after the announcement of the Soleimani strike on January 3, 2020.
Part of Senators Warren and Van Hollen’s letter to SEC reads, “individuals who were guests at President Trump’s resort may have obtained confidential market-moving information and had the opportunity to trade defense industry stocks or commodities or make other trades based on this information. These private individuals, therefore, would have had the opportunity to obtain significant profits simply by being guests or members at President Trump’s private resort. According to reports, ‘the club’s nearly 500 paying members include dozens of real estate developers, Wall Street financiers, energy executives and others whose businesses could be affected by Mr. Trump’s policies.'”
Bottom line folks, it is not yet clear whether any of Trump’s pals at Maralago profited from insider trading. The public should be very encouraged however by Senators Warren and Van Hollen’s proactive stance in calling for an SEC probe because it is well established that corrupt individuals only cease and desist when they realize that people are watching them.
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