#TradingTom Malinowski is begging to be fired
#TradingTom appears ready to make another trade: his job in Congress.
Despite earning negative national attention for making shady, COVID-related stock trades during the pandemic and facing two ongoing ethics complaints for violating federal law and failing to disclose his transactions, Malinowski has decided to continue aggressively trading stocks.
NRCC Comment: “Even after being caught, Tom Malinowski is still more interested in boosting his personal wealth than serving his constituents. Malinowski is begging to be fired.” – NRCC Spokeswoman Samantha Bullock
In case you missed it…
Rep. Tom Malinowski continues to aggressively trade stocks despite a congressional ethics investigation
Business Insider
Dave Levinthal
June 21, 2021
https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-malinowski-stocks-ethics-congress-investing-makets-2021-6
- Malinowski is facing an ethics investigation for not properly disclosing dozens of stock trades.
- The Democrat from New Jersey purchased five figures’ worth of Peloton stock in April.
- Peloton is facing federal scrutiny over injuries caused by its Tread+ treadmill.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Members of Congress routinely trade stocks, buying and selling the shares of companies that often have significant business before the federal government — and sometimes spend lots of money to lobby lawmakers.
Each week, Insider digs through financial-disclosure records that US federal lawmakers filed in recent days. Here are the latest highlights from what we’ve found.
Under ethics cloud, Tom Malinowski keeps trading
Following Insider’s reporting in March, the Office of Congressional Ethics began investigating Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey, for failing to properly disclose dozens of stock trades during 2019 and 2020.
This hasn’t stopped Malinowski from continuing to buy and sell equities this year, according to new documents he filed with the clerk of the House of Representatives.
Of particular note is Malinowski’s April 21 purchase of up to $50,000 worth of shares in the embattled exercise-equipment company Peloton Interactive Inc. (Members of Congress are required only to report stock trade values in broad ranges.)
Malinowski’s purchase came four days after the US Consumer Product Safety Commission on April 17 issued a public warning about the “danger of popular Peloton Tread+ exercise machine after multiple incidents of small children and a pet being injured beneath the machines.” The commission also noted it was investigating an incident earlier this year in which a Peloton Tread+ machine killed a young child.
Peloton’s stock price dropped quickly following the commission’s announcement. It closed at $116.21 a share the day before the safety warning, and on the day of Malinowski’s purchase it closed at $99.93 a share.
Malinowski’s Peloton stock purchase also came on the same day as the filing of a class-action lawsuit in federal court against Peloton, in part accusing the company of erroneously rejecting federal safety warnings and maintaining that its Tread+ machine is safe.
Peloton called the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s warning “inaccurate and misleading.”
Among other stock trades Malinowski made during April, he:
- Sold up to $265,000 in General Finance Corporation, a storage-rental company that in May merged with United Rentals.
- Sold up to $30,000 worth of shares in the food-delivery company DoorDash Inc.
- Purchased up to $100,000 worth of shares in the cloud-computing firm Teradata Corporation.
- Purchased up to $50,000 worth of shares in CM Life Sciences III Inc., a special-purpose acquisition company. The newly created SPAC “intends to focus its search for business combination targets in three separate areas of the life sciences industry that are often fragmented — life sciences tools, synthetic biology and diagnostics.”
Asked about Malinowski’s recent stock trades, a spokeswoman, Amanda Osborne, referred Insider to a May 20 letter from the financial-management company Gagnon Securities LLC. The letter affirmed that the company made stock trades on the congressman’s behalf “without Congressman Malinowski’s input or prior knowledge” and “does so based on publicly available information as well as proprietary analysis that forms our investment strategy for all our clients.”
Osborne also reaffirmed to Insider that Malinowski still planned to put his assets into a blind trust.
“All the paperwork for the blind trust has been submitted to the [House] Ethics Committee and we are waiting on their approval,” she said.
As for the Office of Congressional Ethics’ inquiry into Malinowski’s stock trades, Osborne said “the review is ongoing, Rep. Malinowski is fully cooperating.”
Officials at the ethics office do not comment on active investigations.