The husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sold more than $500,000 worth of Visa stock less than three months before the Department of Justice hit the credit card giant with an antitrust lawsuit, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
On July 3, Paul Pelosi sold 2,000 shares of Visa worth between $500,000 and $1 million, the Post reported, citing a congressional filing that was posted by tech entrepreneur Christopher Josephs, who runs the "Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker" on the social media platform X.
On July 3, there was no public inkling that the Justice Department would file the lawsuit against Visa. The implication, however, is that Rep. Pelosi would be aware of such investigations behind the scenes, according to the Post.
"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 Post.
"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," former enforcement attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission Ron Geffner told the Post.
The DOJ is accusing Visa of suppressing competition by threatening merchants with high fees and paying off potential rivals.
"Visa's unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing, but the price of nearly everything," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, noting merchants and banks pass payment network costs to consumers.
Rep. Pelosi has a net worth in the nine figures thanks to her and her husband's stock portfolio, the Post reported.
Further, Rep. Pelosi has pushed back on bipartisan-proposed bans to prevent lawmakers and their spouses from trading stock, given the potential for conflict of interest, according to the Post.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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