Profiting From the Pandemic

Any senator who used insider knowledge to make a profit off the coronavirus crisis has no right to hold office.

Sen. Richard Burr and other senators who sold off stocks — while publicly downplaying the threat of COVID-19 — must be investigated and held accountable.

Senator Richard Burr received daily briefings about the coronavirus as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. And publicly, he downplayed concerns about an outbreak — saying we were “better prepared than ever before.”

But in private, Burr was selling off his portfolio — unloading up to $1.6 million in stocks right before they lost huge amounts of market value. That means Burr’s inside information as a senator let him dodge the market crash that will shrink millions of Americans’ retirement savings.

If Burr engaged in this outrageous self-serving conduct, he has no right to continue to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Profiting off of a pandemic is despicable. If the allegations are true, instead of serving the American people in a moment of crisis — Burr used his position as a senator to enrich himself.

Burr’s biggest sales included companies vulnerable to an economic slowdown. He dumped up to $150,000 worth of shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, a chain that has lost two-thirds of its value. And he sold up to $100,000 of shares of Extended Stay America. Shares of that company are now worth less than half of what they did at the time Burr sold.

Common Cause has filed official complaints with the Senate Ethics Committee, the Department of Justice, and the Securities and Exchange Commission to demand an investigation into Burr — as well as Senators Kelly Loeffler, Jim Inhofe, and Dianne Feinstein, who did a similar stock sell-off earlier this year.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK) Act

The STOCK Act is an Act of Congress designed to combat insider trading. It was signed into law by President Barack Obama on April 4, 2012. The law prohibits the use of non-public information for private profit, including insider trading by members of Congress and other government employees. Burr was one of three senators who opposed the bill.

Three House Democrats announced plans at the end of March to introduce legislation that would ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks. The legislation — to be introduced by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Joe Neguse, D-Colo. — would force lawmakers and senior staff to either hold onto their individual stocks while in Congress, sell them within six months of the bill passing, or transfer their holdings into a blind trust. Holding broad-based investments like exchange-traded funds would still be allowed.

For more information, visit www.commoncause.org