House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) disclosed that her husband, Paul Pelosi, invested millions in Nvidia Corporation and sold large quantities of Visa and Apple stocks and call options in June.
The congresswoman reported three new stock and stock option trades made by her husband last month in a disclosure filed with the House of Representatives on July 14.
According to the filing, Paul Pelosi exercised 200 call options, or 20,000 shares, of Nvidia at a strike price of $100 and expiration of June 17, 2022, worth between $1 million and $5 million.
On that same date, her husband also sold 50 call options in Apple at a strike price of $100, with the transaction listed with a value of between $100,000 and $250,000.
Call options are a contract between a buyer and a seller to purchase a certain stock, bond, commodity, or other assets at a certain price up until a defined expiration date.
Her financier husband, who is estimated to be worth in excess of $100 million, also sold 10,000 shares of Visa worth between $1 million and $5 million on June 21, according to the filing.
Earlier last month, Pelosi disclosed that her husband had purchased options to buy shares of Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. worth upwards of $2 million.
Paul Pelosi owns and operates a San Francisco-based real estate and consulting firm.
He was charged last month with driving under the influence and causing injury after being arrested in May.
Debate Stalls Over Trading In Congress
The stock disclosures come as Congress stalled its debate over whether lawmakers and their spouses should be allowed to buy, sell, and hold individual stocks.
Pelosi initially opposed the move to bar lawmakers from trading stock, telling reporters in December last year, “We are a free-market economy,” and that “they should be able to participate in that.”
However, the Democrat signaled in January that she might be willing to advance such legislation.
“I’ve said to the House Administration Committee, review all the bills that are coming in and see which ones—where the support is in our caucus,” Pelosi told reporters in January, “If members want to do that, I’m okay with that.”
An Insider analysis from 2021 found that Pelosi is the 14th wealthiest member of Congress with an estimated net worth of at least $46 million.
At the time of the analysis, her husband had holdings in a number of corporations including Tesla, Visa, Salesforce, PayPal, Alphabet, Facebook, Netflix, and more.
Meanwhile, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) was ranked the wealthiest, thanks to his vast holdings in stocks, bonds, and private-equity funds among others.
Unusual Whales, a company that sells financial data, also said that Scott was No. 1 in stock trading last year, while Pelosi placed sixth in stock trading among congressmembers in 2021.
A 2012 law known as the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or the STOCK Act, bans lawmakers from using non-public information from their work in Congress for their personal benefit.
It also requires them to disclose stock transactions by themselves or family members no later than 45 days after such a transaction is made.
However, Kedric Payne, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, which aims to “advance democracy through law,” told NPR in January that his group has filed complaints with the Office of Congressional Ethics and Senate ethics committee over alleged violations of the current law.
“Members of Congress are finally seeing that the public wants to know that they are not acting in their own personal interests when they make official decisions,” Payne said.
Payne claimed that there have been over 50 occasions where lawmakers have failed to disclose their stock trades within 45 days in the past year.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
Follow
Katabella Roberts is a reporter currently based in Turkey. She covers news and business for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States.
