'60 Minutes' Uncovers Pelosi's Insider Stock Trades

'60 Minutes' Uncovers Pelosi's Insider Stock Trades
Sunday, 13 Nov 2011 07:49 PM
By Newsmax Wires

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bought stock in initial public offerings (IPOs) that earned hefty returns while she had access to insider information that would have been illegal for an average citizen to trade with – even though it’s perfectly legal for elected officials, CBS’s "60 Minutes" reported Sunday night.

In a piece relying on data collected from the conservative Hoover Institution, "60 Minutes" revealed that elected officials like Pelosi are exempt from insider trading laws – regulations that carry hefty prison sentences and fines for any other citizen who trades stocks with private information on companies that can affect their stock price.

In the case of elected officials – this secret information ranges from timely details on lucrative federal contracts to legislation that can cause companies’ stocks to rise and fall dramatically.

How do they get away with it? Lawmakers have exempted themselves from the laws that govern every other citizen.

Pelosi, D-Calif., and her husband have participated in at least eight IPOs while having access to information directly relating to the companies involved. One of those came in 2008, from Visa, just as a troublesome piece of legislation that would have hurt credit card companies, began making its way through the House.

“Undisturbed by a potential conflict of interest the Pelosis purchased 5,000 shares of Visa at the initial price of $44 dollars. Two days later it was trading at $64. The credit card legislation never made it to the floor of the House,” Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" reported.

Kroft confronted Pelosi at a regular press conference after she declined an interview.

Kroft: Madam Leader, I wanted to ask you why you and your husband back in March of 2008 accepted and participated in a very large IPO deal from Visa at a time there was major legislation affecting the credit card companies making its way through the —through the House.

Nancy Pelosi: But —

Kroft: And did you consider that to be a conflict of interest?

Pelosi: The — y — I — I don't know what your point is of your question. Is there some point that you want to make with that?

Kroft: Well, I — I — I guess what I'm asking is do you think it's all right for a speaker to accept a very preferential, favorable stock deal?

Pelosi: Well, we didn't.

Kroft: You participated in the IPO. And at the time you were speaker of the House. You don't think it was a conflict of interest or had the appearance--

Pelosi: No, it was not —

Kroft: — of a conflict of interest?

Pelosi: —it doesn't — it only has appearance if you decide that you're going to have — elaborate on a false premise. But it — it — it's not true and that's that.

Kroft: I don't understand what part's not true.

Pelosi: Yes sir. That — that I would act upon an investment.

The Hoover Institution’s Peter Schweizer stressed that what Pelosi did was completely legal.

“There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it's not illegal, but I think it's highly unethical, I think it's highly offensive, and wrong,” he told Kroft.

“… Insider trading on the stock market. If you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to apply,” Schweizer added. “The fact is, if you sit on a healthcare committee and you know that Medicare, for example, is — is considering not reimbursing for a certain drug that's market moving information. And if you can trade stock on — off of that information and do so legally, that's a great profit making opportunity. And that sort of behavior goes on.”

Pelosi’s office issued a statement Sunday saying, “It is very troubling that ‘60 Minutes’ would base their reporting off of an already-discredited conservative author who has made a career out of attacking Democrats.”

Schweizer’s books include “Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy,” and “Architects of Ruin,” according to Schweizer’s page on the Hoover Institution website.


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Jon Bon Jovi, the millionaire rock star cited in the report, took federal dollars to raise honeybees on his property. Together billionaire moguls David Rockefeller and Ted Turner have also accepted more than half a million dollars in farm payments. Basketball legend Scottie Pippen took $210,520 in agriculture subsidies while making his fortune playing for the Chicago Bulls. To make matters worse, the government disclosed to Coburn that some recipients of farm subsidies got it by mistake. Tax records show that more than three fourths of high earners collecting farming money list their primary residence in a city—land unsuitable for farming.

This is the reason why I don't donate celebrity endorsed charity

Now another of Madonna's charities is investigated amid claims of financial mismanagement
By Daniel Bates
Last updated at 11:41 PM on 4th April 2011


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1373417/Madonnas-charity-Success-Kids-iinvestigated-amid-claims-financial-mismanagement.html#ixzz1IeMwKDPv

A second of Madonna’s charities is being investigated over alleged financial mismanagement.
Educational charity Success for Kids, which the singer chairs, is being probed by the FBI for ‘several irregularities and suspicious activity’.
It is not clear the extent to which Madonna is involved in the investigation but she has donated $671,000 (£415,000) since it was founded in 2001.
She has also persuaded a string of celebrity friends to give generously.
The development comes a week after it emerged that the Material Girl had to scrap plans to build a school in Malawi due to financial mismanagement by another of her charities.
Raising Malawi abandoned the project because the £2.4million already spent had been frittered away on needless luxuries.
The latest blow will be another setback for Madonna and raises the prospect she could be drawn into a federal tax probe in the U.S.
It will doubtless add to her ‘frustration’ that the school project ran aground but experts claimed it raised serious questions over both charities and her involvement in them.
Success for Kids is an offshoot of Raising Malawi and has raised $33million (£20.4million) since 2001 with Madonna being by far its biggest cheerleader.
It describes itself as ‘the largest international social emotional learning organisation in the world’ with offices in eight countries, including Malawi.
Success for Kids and Raising Malawi split in 2008 but both appear to have got into financial difficulties some time afterwards.
A investigation initiated by Madonna found that at Raising Malawi there was a ‘startling lack of accountability’ with the management and a string of ‘outlandish expenditures’.
In one case, two cars were bought for employees that hadn't even been hired. Some of the £2.4million still hasn't been accounted for, said the audit.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1373417/Madonnas-charity-Success-Kids-iinvestigated-amid-claims-financial-mismanagement.html#ixzz1IeN1vVM8

Madonna, 52, who adopted a daughter, Mercy, from Malawi last year and a son, David, in 2008, was not implicated in the financial mismanagement.
A separate report last week claimed Madonna’s Kabbalah religion and Raising Malawi were also being investigated in the U.S for tax irregularities.
Members of a grand jury have supposedly been subpoenaed to ask questions of both organisations.
They will be looking into the Kabbalah Centre, Raising Malawi and the Berg family who own it.
Ken Berger, president of the U.S. charity watchdog Charity Navigator, said the developments were highly unusual.
‘First of all, most charities are not investigated,' he said.
‘Multiple investigations going on at once is quite extraordinary’.
Success for Kids, the Kabbalah Centre, Raising Malawi and Madonna all declined to comment.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1373417/Madonnas-charity-Success-Kids-iinvestigated-amid-claims-financial-mismanagement.html#ixzz1IeN6pgXk