Edited by: TJVNews.com

As the price of shares in some of America’s biggest companies continues to rise, seems like one person who is really making a killing on the market is Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and owner and operator of a San Francisco–based real estate and venture capital investment and consulting firm.

According to a report on the Market Watch web site, Pelosi bought call options that “give him the right, but not the obligation, to purchase shares in Google parent Alphabet Inc.  memory-chip company Micron Technology Inc. Salesforce.com Inc. and Walt Disney Corp. at prices that are upwards of 45% below their closing trading levels on the days in which he made the transactions, according to a periodic transaction report filed with the government.”

On December 15th the AP reported that Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers should not be barred from trading stock, a practice that has come under scrutiny because it gives members of Congress the opportunity to profit from inside information gained through their official duties.

“We are a free-market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi, whose venture-capitalist husband holds tens of millions of dollars’ worth of stocks and options, told reporters several weeks ago.

The AP reported that Pelosi has long said she has no involvement in or prior knowledge of her husband’s trading decisions and does not own any stock herself.

The issue of congressional stock trading has taken on new urgency since the beginning of the pandemic, when suspiciously timed stock trades by lawmakers in both parties provoked outrage and led to multiple investigations, as was reported by the AP.

To date, no one has been charged in connection with stock-trading investigations undertaken by the Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission.

But the often lucrative trades nonetheless shine a spotlight on the inadequacies of a 2012 law called the Stock Act, which bars members from using inside information to make investment decisions and requires that all stock trades be reported to Congress within 45 days.

The 2012 law was passed with bipartisan support in the wake of a trading scandal. Yet, in the nearly 10 years since it was enacted, no one has been prosecuted under it, even as many members continue to conspicuously trade, according to the AP report.

In some recent cases, lawmakers have failed to report their trades altogether, as required by the law.

“We have a responsibility to report,” Pelosi said, as was reported by the AP. “If people aren’t reporting, they should be.”

But when asked whether lawmakers and their spouses should be prohibited from trading stock while in Congress, Pelosi said, “No,” adding that “this is a free market.”

The AP reported that legal experts say insider-trading cases are exceptionally difficult to prosecute because they require definitively proving whether someone acted on nonpublic information. That hinges on demonstrating intent — a high burden.

That’s why many ethics experts have advocated for a ban on congressional stock trading to remove any temptation altogether.

Pelosi’s most recent financial disclosure shows her husband has millions of dollars’ worth of holdings, according to the Market Watch report. That includes takes in Amazon and Apple that are worth between $5 million and $25 million each.

A report in the New York Post said that in recent years Paul Pelosi has made big-money bets on companies his wife is supposed to regulate, including Amazon, Apple and Google.

The Post also reported that the December’s calls — which are set to expire in late 2022 and early 2023 — show that the Pelosis believe tech stocks are going to continue their current bull run in the new year, according to Thomas Hayes of Great Hill Capital.

“They’re trying to ride the momentum,” Hayes told The Post. “The Pelosis live in San Francisco — they’re around a lot of hype so I’d see how they’re caught up in the euphoria.”

Some DC insiders have speculated that Pelosi is slow-walking bipartisan legislation that would hurt big tech firms, as was reported by the Post.