ICYMI: Democrat Bridget Brink Bought Chinese Stocks As Biden’s Ukraine Ambassador

DC Bureaucrat Bridget Brink was caught making nearly 200 stock trades worth up to $4Mwhile serving as Biden’s Ukraine Ambassador.

Reporting highlights that “Bridget Brink’s stock purchases included shares in Chinese automakers that are direct competitors to American companies that employ thousands in her district.”

“Out of touch Democrat Bridget Brink lined her own pockets engaging in stock trading with Chinese companies. Brink has proven she will put her own bank account ahead of hardworking Michiganders.” – NRCC Spokesman Zach Bannon

Read more from the Washington Free Beacon here or see excerpts below:

Michigan House Candidate Says She Would Ban Stock Trading Among US Officials to ‘Fight Corruption.’ As Biden’s Ukraine Ambassador, She Made 179 Stock Trades Worth Up to $4M.
Washington Free Beacon
Thomas Catenacci
May 12, 2016

As U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, House candidate Bridget Brink was an energetic stock trader, making 179 individual stock trades worth between $754,000 and $4 million while in office, according to more than two dozen ethics disclosures filed with the State Department and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

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Brink’s newfound quest to fight corruption is in stark contrast to her prolific stock trading as ambassador to Ukraine. And it could prove to be a weakness on the campaign trail as she attempts to position herself as the candidate best suited to take on corruption in Washington, D.C.

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Brink largely maintained that fund-heavy portfolio until 2023, when she began actively trading individual stocks even as she ran a wartime embassy in Kyiv. Between May 2023 and July 2024, Brink reported 142 stock purchases, worth between $317,142 and $2.5 million, and 37 stock sales, worth between $437,037 and $1.4 million. Officials are required to report such transactions and asset values with ranges, not exact figures.

Brink’s stocks are held in brokerage accounts she owns jointly with her husband, Nicholas Higgins, a career U.S. Foreign Service and USAID official, according to her most recent disclosure. It is unclear if Higgins remains in government service after the dismantling of USAID last year.

In many cases, Brink’s investments paid off quickly. For example, on June 5, 2023, she purchased stock in mining giant Albemarle worth between $1,000 and $15,000. On July 21, 2023, she sold Albemarle shares for between $15,000 and $50,000. On June 26, 2023, she purchased stock in the Chinese-owned solar panel maker Canadian Solar. She sold those shares at a profit just three weeks later. And on April 22, 2024, she bought shares of Tesla worth between $2,000 and $30,000. She sold those shares three months later for between $50,000 and $100,000.

Brink built substantial positions in stocks across various sectors. She purchased as much as $740,000 in Maxeon Solar, a Singaporean solar firm acquired by a Chinese energy company in 2024; $410,000 in Block, an online payment company; $170,000 in PayPal; $165,000 in electric vehicle startup Rivian; $105,000 in Expensify, an expense management software; $60,000 in D-Wave Quantum, a quantum computing company; and $30,000 in the Walt Disney Company, for example.

Brink also purchased as much as $150,000 worth of stock in Polestar and $140,000 worth of stock in NIO. Both Polestar and NIO are Chinese-owned electric vehicle companies and are global competitors of American automakers. Republicans and Democrats alike have called for the federal government to ban Chinese cars from entering the U.S. market.

The district Brink is running to represent, meanwhile, is home to a General Motors plant that employs 4,183 people and an LG electric vehicle battery plant that is projected to employ thousands more. General Motors is the second-largest private employer in Lansing, the largest city in Brink’s district.

Based on her House candidate financial disclosure filed late last year, Brink had sold her shares in Polestar and NIO. The disclosure, though, did show a new holding: up to $15,000 worth of stock in General Motors.

Voters may also be interested in Brink’s positions in Maxeon Solar and Canadian Solar, two Chinese-owned solar panel makers. The U.S. firm Corning is constructing a solar wafer plant in Richland Township, roughly a 30-minute drive north of Brink’s district, that will employ hundreds of people. The Corning facility is the first of its kind in the United States. China controls more than 96 percent of global solar wafer production, an important base component of solar panels.

The revelations come shortly after Politico reported that Brink owned up to $15,000 worth of stock in Albemarle while participating indirectly in the U.S.-Ukraine negotiations over mineral rights last year.

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