Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband gained nearly $5 million on a trade of stocks in Google parent company Alphabet Inc. and also added bets to Amazon and Apple ahead of the House Judiciary Committee’s vote last month to advance five antitrust bills targeting major tech giants.
According to a recently released financial disclosure report signed by the Democratic leader on July 2, Paul Pelosi, who owns a real estate and venture capital investment firm, exercised 40 call options to gain 4,000 shares of Alphabet at a strike price of $1,200.
Paul Pelosi gained $4.8 million from the trade, which has since risen to $5.3 million, Bloomberg reported.
The transaction, dated June 18, followed previous actions in May purchasing 20 call options for Amazon with a strike price of $3,000 and acquiring 50 call options for Apple with a strike price of $100, the disclosure report noted.
The options, which have a June 2022 expiration date, suggest that Paul Pelosi expects Amazon and Apple to continue their gains.
Late last month, the Judiciary Committee voted in favor of moving forward bills aimed at addressing concerns over a lack of competition amid the overwhelming influence of a small group of tech giants.
The bills include one aimed at prohibiting platforms from giving their own products and services precedence, and another that would prevent tech giants from acquiring competitor companies.
When reached for comment on Paul Pelosi’s recent financial moves, spokesman Drew Hammill told The Hill that Nancy Pelosi “has no involvement or prior knowledge of these transactions.”
Hammill emphasized that the transactions are listed in the financial disclosure report as moves made by a congress member’s spouse, as required by disclosure laws, adding that the Speaker “does not own any stock.”
Pelosi broke from several of her California Democratic colleagues, particularly those from tech-heavy Bay Area districts, who voiced opposition to the antitrust bills targeting tech companies.
California Democratic Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Eric Swalwell and Lou Correa each voted against nearly all of the five bills included in the Judiciary Committee session.
Pelosi defended the importance of the legislative proposals while speaking to reporters last month, saying, “There has been concern on both sides of the aisle about the consolidation of power of the tech companies and this legislation is an attempt to address that in the interest of fairness, in the interest of competition, in the interest of meeting needs of people who are whose privacy whose data and all the rest is at the mercy of these tech companies.”
