Public records prove that Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), sold over $500,000 worth of Visa stock shortly before the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced antitrust charges against the company.
According to the New York Post, Pelosi’s transaction occurred less than three months before the announcement of the federal lawsuit on Tuesday. The DOJ alleges, after an investigation over the course of several years, that Visa has become a monopoly in the debit card market. The company, the DOJ claims, has subsequently used its position of power to punish customers and businesses who use rival payment processors.
A congressional filing from July 3rd revealed that Paul Pelosi had sold about 2,000 shares of Visa, worth at least $500,000 and as much as $1 million. The disclosure form was posted on X by Christopher Josephs, a tech entrepreneur and the owner of the “Nancy Pelosi Stock Trader” account, which documents Pelosi’s various stock dealings and scrutinizes the circumstances under which certain transactions take place.
Nancy Pelosi’s transaction was marked as “SP,” which stands for spouse, thus indicating that the stocks sold belonged to her husband. At the time the sale was made, there was nothing that had been publicly released suggesting that an antitrust lawsuit against Visa was on the horizon.
When asked about the suspicious timing of the transaction, a spokesman from Pelosi’s office simply said that “Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”
Pelosi has repeatedly been criticized for stock transactions that could be considered acts of insider trading, coupled with the fact that she refuses to crack down on the practice of buying and selling stocks as a sitting member of Congress. Despite bipartisan efforts to pass legislation that would forbid members of Congress and their spouses from being involved in stock trading, Pelosi has opposed any such measures.
Following the announcement of the lawsuit, Visa shares dropped by about 5.5%.
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