Tucked into the nearly $100 billion aid packages passed last weekend by Congress and signed into law by the president was a measure which could ban the popular steaming app TikTok unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sells it. While that could be bad news for TikTok’s nearly 170 million American users, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) may just be the luckiest lawmaker in the U.S.
But there may be something more than luck at play in McCaul’s potential good fortune.
According to Wall Street Apes, McCaul invested $1.15 million into META, a competitor to TikTok, after authoring the bill which could ban TikTok in the U.S.
Over a 40 day period, McCaul wrote the bill and incrementally invested in TikTok’s competitor, then he voted for the bill.
WOW 🚨 Congressman Michael McCaul Who Wrote The TikTok Ban Bill Invested $1.15 Million Into META After Writing The Bill
– On March 3rd, he authored the TikTok Ban Bill
– On March 22nd, he invested $150,000 in META
– On the 26th, he invested another $150,000
– On the 28th, he… pic.twitter.com/PUNTbDtsNo— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) April 25, 2024
This action has prompted accusations that the congressman is gaming the system with insider trading but McCaul’s good fortune isn’t exactly written in stone, yet.
According to Finbold, Rep. McCaul actually saw META share values drop to $427.04 from $493.50 due to heavy selling insider activity with META CEO Mark Zuckerberg selling off nearly $600 million in shares in March.
Consequently, Finbold reports, McCaul has so far incurred a loss of nearly $113,456 on his investment in META stock.
Insider trading is illegal, however, according to the Loyola University Chicago School of Law, members of Congress regularly are exempted from such laws through a loophole that allows members of Congress and their families to trade stocks with almost no limitations.
As Wall Street Apes points out, the word suspicious isn’t strong enough to mask the scent of criminality that lingers over what congressional insiders want us to think is merely good luck.