On Tuesday, the Department of Justice launched a massive lawsuit against Google, claiming the internet giant has an illegal monopoly on online advertising.
By acquiring competitors, Google “has corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry,” the government said in their argument. “Google uses its dominion over digital advertising technology to funnel more transactions to its own ad tech products where it extracts inflated fees to line its own pockets at the expense of the advertisers and publishers it purportedly serves,” the suit claims.
The story gets weirder however considering San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi made an eyebrow raising stock trade just four weeks before the suit was announced.
“The DOJ has officially opened up a lawsuit against Google to break up its Ad Technology Monopoly,” reported the popular Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker Twitter account. “Pelosi sold $3 Million dollars worth of Google just four weeks ago. Wild.”
The Twitter account posted proof of the trade.
Source of article & source of the sellhttps://t.co/zvweRQyLo0 pic.twitter.com/Vx4KYKERMu
— Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker ♟ (@PelosiTracker_) January 25, 2023
See my take below:
“REPORT: Pelosi sold $3 Million of Google stock 4 weeks ago. Yesterday, the DOJ opened a lawsuit against Google to break up their tech monopoly. Pelosi gets a free pass for white collar crime. Anyone else would be in jail.”
REPORT: Pelosi sold $3 Million of Google stock 4 weeks ago. Yesterday, the DOJ opened a lawsuit against Google to break up their tech monopoly.
Pelosi gets a free pass for white collar crime. Anyone else would be in jail.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 25, 2023
Is this just luck or is Pelosi conducting in insider trading?
This seems to happen quite frequently for the former Speaker and her husband. Back in 2021, the Pelosi’s made another alarming trade surrounding Microsoft.
“In March 2021, Paul Pelosi exercised options to purchase 25,000 Microsoft shares worth more than $5 million. Less than two weeks later, the U.S. Army disclosed a $21.9 billion deal to buy augmented reality headsets from Microsoft. Shares of the company rose sharply after the deal was announced,” the Hill reported.
Some members of Congress want to take action against members who frequently trade stocks.
On Tuesday, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley introduced legislation that would forbid members of Congress, and their family members, from trading individual stocks.
The proposal would require Congress members and their immediate families to move any stocks they own into qualified blind trusts. If they fail to do so, they’d lose their stocks to the U.S. treasury.
Hawley hilariously coined the proposal to be the “Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments,” in other words the (PELOSI) Act.
The proposal comes after Pelosi and her husband Paul, traded stocks worth millions prior to Congress passing a subsidy package in 2022.
“For too long, politicians in Washington have taken advantage of the economic system they write the rules for, turning profits for themselves at the expense of the American people,” Hawley explained. “As members of Congress, both Senators and Representatives are tasked with providing oversight of the same companies they invest in, yet they continually buy and sell stocks, outperforming the market time and again.”
The bill, if passed, would mandate new members of Congress to divest or place prohibited holdings in a blind trust within six months of taking office and maintain that position while serving the public. Spouses of these politicians would also be required to return any investment profits to the government via the U.S. Treasury.
“As members of Congress, both Senators and Representatives are tasked with providing oversight of the same companies they invest in, yet they continually buy and sell stocks, outperforming the market time and again,” Hawley went on to say. “While Wall Street and Big Tech work hand-in-hand with elected officials to enrich each other, hardworking Americans pay the price.”