David Perdue, the Georgian Republican facing the Senate election on Tuesday, has twice bought a significant number of shares in a U.S. bank shortly after meeting with financial policy makers, raising more questions about his prolific stock trading while in office.
In one case, in May 2015, Perdue bought between $ 15,000 and $ 50,000 worth of shares of Regions Financial Corporation two days after a 10-minute phone call with then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
Perdue bought additional shares in the bank two years later, on May 18, 2017, two days after a half-hour meeting with Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve.
It is unclear in either case whether Perdue discussed with Lew or Yellen the relevant financial regulation or other market-sensitive issues or whether the discussions influenced his decision to buy the shares.
At the time of the call with Lew, members of the Senate banking committee, in which Perdue is sitting, held close talks about a possible trade deal.
But the purchase of more shares from the Regions following Perdue’s meeting with Yellen – who will be nominated to be Treasury Secretary by Joe Biden once the president-elect takes office – is possibly significant, because it happened about two months earlier. that Yellen publicly discuss its support for raising the $ 50 billion asset threshold for systemically important institutions, a change that meant that banks in the Regions could downplay important financial regulations.
As Yellen’s views on the issue evolved publicly in her role as Fed chair, so did Perdue’s accumulation of shares in the regions. Perdue separately tried to move forward with deregulatory legislation that was favorable to banks such as Regions, which the Regions and more than a dozen banks publicly approved.
Public records show that Perdue sold its full stake in Regions on October 11, 2019 and October 23, 2019, suggesting that Perdue may have obtained a return of 21% of its previous investment. He then bought more shares of the stock in November 2019 and January 2020.
John Burke, Perdue’s communications director, has said Perdue does not manage day-to-day decisions about its portfolio, which Perdue said is managed by external financial advisors.
It’s not uncommon for policymakers like Yellen to have meetings with senators. On the day of his meeting with Perdue in 2017, Yellen also met with Lord Mervyn King, the former governor of the Bank of England, had lunch with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and then met with another senator, the Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown.
Former government experts say policymakers try to be cautious at these meetings and try to avoid sharing information that could move markets. At the same time, it can be difficult to avoid the exchange of potentially valuable information if senators and policymakers debate any issue in depth and a senator might be able to measure an evolving political position that could be market sensitive.
The new revelations come as a result of Perdue’s frequent trading of shares while in office, under press surveillance ahead of Tuesday’s Senate election. If Democrats win two by-elections, it will transfer Senate control from Republicans to Democrats.
Previous media reports have focused on how Perdue has faced federal scrutiny for his frequent stock trading while in office and whether his position as a senator with access to market-sensitive information, especially during the pandemic , may have influenced some businesses. The New York Times, citing several anonymous sources, said Perdue’s sale of $ 1 million in shares to a financial company called Cardlytics, where he served on the board, caught the attention of Justice Department investigators. last spring, they were doing “a comprehensive review of the senator’s prolific trade at the start of the coronavirus pandemic for possible evidence of privileged trade.”
The investigators finally concluded that a personal message that had been sent to Perdue by the company’s chief executive, alluding to “upcoming changes,” was not “non-public information,” and they rejected the prosecution. of charges. Perdue sold its shares two days after receiving the CEO’s personal message. About six weeks later, the chief executive resigned and the company revealed that the results were lower than expected, leading to a drop in shares.
The New York Times reported separately that as a member of the Senate cybersecurity committee, Perdue and others sought protection from the National Guard against data breaches. The newspaper said that as of 2016, Perdue bought and sold shares of a cybersecurity company called FireEye on 61 occasions. Nearly half of those trades, according to the New York Times, occurred while Perdue was on the cybersecurity committee, which could have given him access to sensitive information.
The Perdue Senate campaign did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. He has previously denied having any conflict of interest.
But Perdue’s challenger in the second round of Senator, Democrat Jon Ossoff, has repeatedly raised the issue and accused Perdue of using his office to get rich.
Perdue’s spokesman called the criticism “unfounded” and stressed that federal investigators had “totally exonerated” it.