Sen. Kelly Loeffler Will Sell Stocks, Move To Mutual Funds After Coronavirus Trading Scrutiny

Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her husband will sell off millions of dollars of individual stocks and related stock options after a firestorm of criticism over trades made by third-party advisors amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Wednesday Loeffler, the wealthiest member of Congress, said she will move her money into exchange-traded funds and mutual funds instead.

“My family’s investments are managed by third-party advisers at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Sepio Capital and Wells Fargo,” she wrote. “These professionals buy and sell stocks on our behalf. We don’t direct trading in these accounts. These trades are disclosed routinely and publicly in reports to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, in full compliance with transparency laws.”

Loeffler and other U.S. senators are facing scrutiny over financial moves made in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, and she denies using information gained in confidential briefings to guide her investment portfolio.

“In its hunger to place blame, the media fixated on a fantasy of improper congressional trading, stemming from a Jan. 24 briefing I and other Senators attended with health officials,” she wrote. “But based on contemporaneous reporting and public statements by the officials who provided the briefing, there was no material or nonpublic information discussed."

Last month, The Daily Beast reported that Loeffler and her husband, New York Stock Exchange Chief Executive Jeff Sprecher, sold between $1.2 million and $3.1 million in stock after the briefing. Some of the transactions reported recently by the couple include purchases in Citrix, a teleworking company, and DuPont, a company that supplies personal protective equipment. But they also sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in shares of Facebook, DocuSign and other companies that might stand to benefit from a shift in public behavior.

Loeffler also maintains her position that she did nothing wrong in the way her third-party advisors ran her portfolio.

“I’m not doing this because I have to,” she wrote. “I’ve done everything the right way and in compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, Senate ethics rules and U.S. law. I’m doing it because the issue isn’t worth the distraction. My family’s investment accounts are being used as weapons for an assault on my character at a time when we should all be focused on making our country safe and strong.”