Today in 'total coincidences' news, the world's most gifted stock-picking family, the Pelosis, appear to have done it again, selling hundreds of thousands of dollars in Visa stock with what can only be described as timing that is beyond prescient.
Paul Pelosi sold more than $500,000 in Visa stock less than 3 months before the company was hit with federal antitrust charges, according to a new report from the New York Post.
The Post reported that on Tuesday, Visa faced a lawsuit accusing the company of illegally monopolizing the debit card market. The suit follows an extensive investigation by the Justice Department’s antitrust division, spanning several years.
According to the court filings, Visa is alleged to have leveraged its dominant market position to disadvantage customers and merchants who opted to use rival payment processors. Antitrust regulators claim Visa pressures fintech firms into working with them by threatening penalties for non-compliance. Visa has yet to comment.
As of the time of this writing, Visa stock was down about 6.5% over the last 5 day period.
Christopher Josephs, who runs the "Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker" on X, posted a screenshot of a July 3 congressional filing showing that Paul Pelosi, husband of the former House Speaker, sold 2,000 Visa shares valued between $500,000 and $1 million.
The filing marked the sale as "SP" for spouse. At the time of the sale, there were no public signs of an impending antitrust lawsuit against Visa.
Hilariously, Nancy Pelosi's spokesperson told the Post: “Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.”
But Ron Geffner, a former enforcement attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said: “At various critical inflection points in history, members of our government have engaged in trading at a time which their conflicts are called into question.”
Before adding: “Before public opinion judges Pelosi unfairly, it is important to determine who engaged in the transaction on her behalf as well as whether it was part of a broader change of her portfolio.”
Pelosi has a net worth in the hundreds of millions, largely from her and her husband's investments. She has consistently opposed bipartisan efforts to ban stock trading by lawmakers and their spouses due to potential conflicts of interest, according to the report.
