Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who has been vicious in his attacks on opponents of Obamacare, is accused of insider trading in the days before the October 2008 market crash:
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island also made a flurry of trades in the days after the Paulson-Bernanke meeting with legislators.At minimum, Whitehouse sold $250,000 in the stocks below between September 18-24, 2008. He may have sold as much as $600,000 in the stock below according to disclosures.
Whitehouse denies that he directed the trading:
Whitehouse spokesman Seth Larson dismissed the book’s accusations, saying the senator is not actively involved in managing the investment fund in question.Whitehouse “neither directed his financial advisor to undertake any transaction during that time, nor ever took advantage of any exclusive or secret information,” Larson said in an email.
That’s an interesting way to phrase the defense. Regardless of whether Whitehouse “directed” the trades, did he have communications with his financial advisor, either directly or indirectly?
Barry Hinckley, the only declared Republican challenger, is not buying this enormously unlikely coincidence:
“Look at these trades and the timing of them and the massive volume. He is trading between 5 and 20 percent of his net worth I find it implausible that much of someone’s net worth would be traded without someone’s knowledge,” Hinckley told WPRO News.
I don’t think we should jump to conclusions and call Whitehouse names, even though he did so to opponents of Obamacare. But the trades need to be vetted fully to verify whether Whitehouse simply is the luckiest stock trader in America, and who his financial advisor is so we can use him too.
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