By Daniel Payne
Updated: January 29, 2021 – 5:34pm
Ethics watchdogs say the timing of large purchases of Tesla stock by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul raises ethics concerns due to an appearance of insider trading.
Paul Pelosi reportedly purchased up to $1 million in stock from electric car giant Tesla last month. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, announced this week that his administration intends to take the entire federal fleet of automobiles electric.
The move by Pelosi was “corrupt and unacceptable,” TakeBack.org Executive Director John Pudner claimed in an interview with the Washington Times this week.
“Even if the actual charges are not provable beyond a reasonable doubt or trigger SEC action, the timing of trades with potential insider information always looks bad,” a former federal prosecutor told the publication.
A spokesman for the speaker said that “her husband, not the speaker, made the Tesla bets and the speaker’s political relationships were irrelevant,” the Times reported.