Thus, the newspaper’s journalists compared the politicians’ transactions with the work of committees, hearings and congressional investigations to discover possible links between their professional activities and personal investments.

Specifically, it was found that during those three years, 183 current senators or representatives reported transactions with different types of financial assets made by themselves or their family members. More than half of them (that is, 97 congressmen or almost a fifth of Parliament) were part of the congressional committees that could give them inside information about companies, whose shares they bought or sold.

In addition, the 44 most active deputies in the stock market traded in the securities of companies for which their committee assignments could provide them with additional information about the companies.

“Throughout the three-year period, more than 3,700 transactions reported by legislators from both parties raised possible conflicts between their public responsibilities and private finances,” the authors of the publication emphasized.

In this sense, they pointed out that “many of the examples” that they list in their research show “how legislative work and investment decisions can overlap in such a way that, at the very least, they can leave the appearance of a conflict and that sometimes they form a worrying pattern, even if they are technically within the norms.”

Under the so-called ‘Stock Act’ of 2012, members of Congress are allowed to buy and sell stocks, bonds and other financial tools as long as they do not trade insider information or disclose any $1,000 worth of transactions for themselves or their immediate family members. dollars or more within 45 days.

Like everyone else, lawmakers are subject to insider trading laws, but they can get sensitive data at work “on any given day,” meetings, secret briefings, and other events.

The New York Times lists potential conflicts of interest for each of the 97 congressmen listed in the investigation. Among other cases, there is that of Bob Gibbs, a member of the House Oversight Committee, who acquired shares in the pharmaceutical company AbbVie in 2020 and 2021, when his committee was investigating the company and its five rivals over high drug prices.

In addition, Rep. Carol Miller’s husband purchased securities from the same company during the investigation, while Miller also served on Gibbs’s committee. The wife and children of Ro Khanna, another member of the same committee, also acquired or divested AbbVie shares during the review, while also transacting with seven other companies whose work Khanna reviewed.

Meanwhile, lawmaker Alan Lowenthal reported in the financial disclosure statement that his spouse had sold the shares of aerospace giant Boeing on March 5, 2020, one day before the committee in which Lowenthal participated published a report that revealed the failures. of the company that led to the two crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX in October 2018 and March 2019, leaving a total of 346 fatalities.

Among the suspected congressmen, the name of the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, does not appear, since she is not part of any committee. At the same time, her husband Paul Pelosi invests in real estate and technology. Between 2019 and 2021 he reported the sale and purchase of assets worth between 25 million and 81 million dollars.

(Taken from RT in Spanish)

Representatives from the Campesino Development Committee (Codeca), organizing the protest, noted that the march comes in response to the national government’s failure to resolve important issues, presented by the bloc to President Jimmy Morales during two similar protests held February 10 and May 11, 2016.

According to PL, the group’s demands include an end to corruption, the criminalization of social movements, and corruption in Congress, as well as investigations into dubious companies, and corrupt judges.
Protesters are also calling for the Investment and Employment Law and decrees 19-2016 and 29-89 to be revoked, as they only benefit corrupt entities.

Activists are also demanding the nationalization of the Quetzal Container Terminal, which operates out of the country’s main trade port and is owned by Dutch firm APM Terminals, a subsidiary of the world’s largest container and shipping company, Maersk Group. Meanwhile, the group is also demanding a Popular and Pluri-national National Constituent Assembly be held.

(Juventud Rebelde)