- Paul Pelosi bought Tesla stock worth about $2.2 million.
- Earlier this month, he invested $2.9 million in shares of several companies.
- Congress is debating whether to ban lawmakers and their spouses from trading stock.
Paul Pelosi, the husband of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, bought Tesla stock worth about $2.2 million on March 17, according to a new financial disclosure from Congress.
Pelosi’s husband, an investor and venture capitalist by trade, is personally an active stock investor. In January, Paul Pelosi invested $2.9 million in American Express, Apple, PayPal and Walt Disney shares. Congressional records indicate that he has made hundreds of millions of dollars in stock trades during the past few years.
Under current laws, members of Congress are required to disclose all individual stock trades and their immediate family members within 30 to 45 days after trading the stock, depending on the business.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hamill told Insider earlier this month when asked about Paul Pelosi’s stock trades that “the speaker does not own any stocks.”
“The speaker has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transaction,” Hamill said in a statement.
Pelosi’s financial disclosures indicate that her husband purchased 2,500 shares of Tesla stock on March 17 — then approximately $2.2 million — by exercising a call option at a strike price of $500 per share. As per the disclosure, the options were to expire the next day.
Tesla’s stock traded near $1,000 a share on March 23.
A Tesla Model 3 is displayed at the Tesla Experience Store in Yantai, Joy City, Shandong Province, eastern China on October 17, 2021.
Tesla, which makes electric vehicles and solar panels, spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year lobbying the federal government, according to lobbying disclosures compiled by the nonpartisan research organization OpenSecrets. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the richest person on earth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Pelosi’s husband’s stock transaction comes at a time when Congress is currently debating whether to ban members of Congress and their spouses from trading in individual shares.
The topic gained renewed interest after Insider published its “Conflicted Congress” investigation in December, which found that 59 lawmakers and at least 182 senior-level Congressional staffers had stopped on the 2012 Congressional Knowledge Act. Trading violated.
Pelosi came under intense criticism after the investigation rejected the idea of barring members of Congress and their spouses from trading in individual shares while in office.
“We are a free market economy. They should be able to participate,” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference when asked by Insider.
But soon after, it reversed course, indicating that it would be open to Congress to consider legislation to ban members from trading stock.
Pelosi said in February whether Congress should ban the wives of federal lawmakers from trading stock: “It’s complicated, and members will figure it out. And then we’ll move forward with consensus.”
Earlier this month, the House Administration committee was scheduled to hear the matter, but it was postponed after its chair, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, tested positive for COVID-19. At present, a new date has not been set.
