GOP Senator David Perdue Occasionally Performed 20 Stock Trades in 1 Day: NYT



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  • Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia has occasionally made at least 20 stock transactions in a single day, according to a New York Times analysis on Wednesday.
  • Perdue made a total of 2,596 transactions during his first term, the report revealed.
  • The senator has come under public scrutiny and been the subject of a federal investigation for potential conflicts of interest while trading shares as a member of Congress.
  • The news comes as he is in a close race with a Democratic challenger to retain his seat in an upcoming special election on January 5.
  • Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Republican Senator David Perdue has at times made at least 20 stock transactions in a single day, according to a New York Times analysis on Wednesday.

The report found that during his six years in office, Perdue performed 2,596 trades, which represents nearly a third of all senator trades during the same period. Sometimes that meant Perdue made at least 20 transactions in a day, the Times noted.

The data comes as Perdue has been the subject of a public scrutiny in recent months for possible conflicts of interest while he was trading stocks as a member of Congress. He drew criticism in the spring after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported he bought shares in a personal protective equipment company on January 24 – the same day he received a confidential Senate briefing on the coronavirus. (The Times reported last week that the Justice Department investigated the senator’s stock market activity around the start of the pandemic; that case was dropped without charge.)

The Times details many other transactions Perdue made during his first term. While on the Senate Armed Services Committee cybersecurity panel, Perdue bought and sold shares of a cybersecurity firm called FireEye, the newspaper found. He has also bought and sold shares of companies such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Regions Financial, while also being a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, which oversees these companies, the report says.

A huge transaction in his wallet, which the Justice Department reportedly reviewed, involved a sale of more than $ 1 million worth of shares of Cardlytics, a financial advertising platform.

Perdue’s office has denied that the senator’s stock trading breaks any conflict of interest and said he does not directly manage his investments, according to the Times.

“Senator Perdue does not manage the day-to-day decisions of his portfolio – all of his holdings are managed by external financial advisers who make recommendations, set strategy and manage transactions and personal finances,” John Burke, director of communications for his campaign, told The Times.

When asked to comment, Burke referred Insider to his statement in The Times and added that “Perdue’s trading activity has been reviewed by the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee, the DOJ, and the SEC, which all independently cleared Senator Perdue of any wrongdoing.

Several other lawmakers have also drawn national attention for their business activity at the start of the public health crisis, including compatriot Georgia Kelly Loeffler, who also faces a run-off runoff on Jan.5.

Perdue is also fighting to retain her seat in the upcoming special elections in Georgia. His Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff, lambasted the senator’s stock trading during the election campaign and called him a “crook.”

On Wednesday, Ossoff repeated the attacks in a retweet of a CNN report highlighting the Times investigation.

“Like I said: he’s a crook,” he wrote.

Perdue spokesman Burke repelled Ossoff’s attacks, calling them “baseless.”

The results of the two races in Georgia will determine which party controls the Senate next year. President Donald Trump, who refused to concede the 2020 presidential election, plans to travel to the state on Saturday to campaign for Perdue and Loeffler.



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