Senator Richard Burr announced on Tuesday that a Justice Department investigation into the stock negotiations he did before the coronavirus pandemic devastated the financial markets has ended, indicating an end to investigations into the transactions made by four senators before the pandemic.
Burr, RN.C .; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif .; Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla .; and former Senator Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., all sold large amounts of shares in late January and early February 2020. These negotiations were scrutinized for possible insider trading after many suggested that the senators may have taken decisions based on internal knowledge that the coronavirus would become a devastating economy pandemic.
“Tonight, the Justice Department informed me that it completed its analysis of my personal financial transactions conducted at the beginning of last year,” said Burr on Tuesday. “The case is closed. I am happy to hear that. My focus has been and will continue to be working for the people of North Carolina during this difficult period for our nation.”
Senator Richard Burr, RN.C., right, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., Vice chairman of the committee, speak to the media after receiving closed instructions from the acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and Inspector General of National Intelligence Michael Atkinson, Thursday, September 26, 2019, at the Capitol in Washington. Burr said on Tuesday that a DOJ investigation into the pre-pandemic stock negotiations he did was closed. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin)
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The New York Times first reported the decision not to press charges.
Burr, in particular, appeared to be at greater legal risk among the four senators. He had the lowest net worth of any of the senators and sold approximately between $ 600,000 and $ 1.7 million in shares, just as rumors about the pandemic were starting to worry members of Congress. Burr also admitted that he did the stock trading himself based on pandemic concerns – but said the measures were not based on internal Senate information.
According to Roll Call, Burr’s net worth was approximately $ 1.7 million in 2018.
Meanwhile, Loeffler sold millions in shares, but represented only a very small percentage of his net worth. She also noted that her investments are made by “several outsourced consultants without my or my husband’s knowledge or involvement”. Loeffler’s husband is Jeffrey Sprecher, whose company, Intercontinental Exchange, owns the New York Stock Exchange.
At the time, Burr said he “relied only on public news reports to guide my financial decisions” and that he specifically “followed CNBC’s daily health and science reports from his offices in Asia”.
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During the early stages of the pandemic, as markets first adjusted to the threat, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 20,000 for the first time since 2017. The New York Stock Exchange also experienced several trade outages in a period of just a few weeks in mid-March.
But Burr, who said he will not run for re-election in 2022, has continually said that his negotiations were conducted ethically and even called for an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee on himself.
None of the senators was reprimanded for the complaints made about the stock transactions, either from the Ministry of Justice or from internal Senate investigations.
Fox News’ Jason Donner and the Associated Press contributed to this report.