Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and her multimillionaire husband, Paul Pelosi, saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling their shares in Nvidia about one month before the U.S. government placed restrictions on the tech company, causing its stock price to plummet.
In July, the Pelosis sold all 25,000 of their shares in Nvidia. On Aug. 26, the government ordered Nvidia to stop selling microchips in China and Russia without authorization, which could cost the company up to $400 million, CNBC reported on Wednesday. The day after CNBC's report, Nvidia's stock price was down nearly 12 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal.
By selling the shares before the news broke, the speaker and her husband saved around $600,000, according to multiple Twitter accounts that track the Pelosis' controversial stock trades.
Paul Pelosi has a long history of making "timely" purchases in companies that his wife has worked to subsidize, the Washington Free Beacon has reported. He purchased the Nvidia stock in June as the speaker oversaw a bill that would grant billions of dollars in subsidies that could benefit the company.
Internet stock traders often follow Nancy Pelosi's purchases and selloffs for investing tips, Business Insider reported, with some suggesting "she's making the big bucks off of insider information."
A Nancy Pelosi spokesman told Fox Business that Paul Pelosi does not speak to his wife about his stock trades until after he makes the trades.
While the speaker in February implied that she wouldn't oppose a congressional stock-trading ban, she appears "content to let" a ban "die behind the scenes," the Daily Beast reported.
"The people who control the calendar don't want to bring it to the floor," Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D., Va.) said.