A freshman Democratic congressman who just happens to represent Wall Street made a perfectly timed sale of his ownership stake in a troubled California bank, exiting his position just days before it saw its stock price enter freefall.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.), who represents the Financial District in Lower Manhattan, sold upwards of $15,000 worth of stocks of PacWest Bancorp on March 6, his financial disclosures show. The timing of Goldman’s sale couldn’t have been more fortuitous—its stock plummeted in value just two days later as investors fled from small and mid-sized banks amid news of Silicon Valley Bank’s pending failure. PacWest’s stock was valued at $27.40 the day Goldman exited his position in the bank. It’s now worth just $3.42, a staggering decline of more than 87 percent.
Such trades are standard fare for Goldman, who is giving former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) a run for her money as Congress’s most prolific stock trader. In his first four months in office, Goldman has made over 500 stock trades valuing between $10 million and $30 million, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of his financial disclosures.
Goldman’s relentless stock trading and his close proximity to the financial world’s levers of power are likely to spawn accusations that he’s using his position in Congress to profit from insider trading. He wouldn’t be the first lawmaker to face such accusations. Members of Congress traded $788 million worth of securities in 2021 alone, and many of them consistently beat the market by a considerable margin. Pelosi in particular has been hounded by accusations of insider trading for her husband’s profitable trades in companies she has worked to subsidize.
From his perch on the Committee for Homeland Security, Goldman has also traded stocks in defense contractors. He bought up to $50,000 in Northrop Grumman stock in March, and up to $15,000 each in weapons manufacturers Raytheon Technologies and L3 Harris Technologies.
Goldman spokesman Simone Kanter told the Free Beacon that the lawmaker has no personal involvement in his stock trades, saying they’re "managed entirely by an investment adviser, with whom he has no discussions about any stock trades since entering Congress."
Kanter added that Goldman "initiated the complicated process of entering into a blind trust" when he assumed office in January and that he supports legislation to prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks.
Lawmakers have renewed efforts to ban congressional stock trading in recent months after a Pelosi-backed stock trading ban bill failed in the House last year.
Such efforts have spawned some unusual alliances. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) teamed up with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) earlier this week to introduce legislation prohibiting their colleagues from trading stocks.
"AOC is wrong a lot, she'd probably say the same thing about me, but she's not corrupt," Gaetz said on Tuesday. "And I will work with anyone and everyone to ensure that Congress is not so compromised."