- Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and CEO husband Jeff Sprecher plan to liquidate their individual stock share positions and related options after weeks of criticism of the couple for selling millions of dollars in stock amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- Sprecher is the chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange.
- Loeffler, who was appointed to the Senate in January, is facing a primary challenge from fellow Republican Rep. Doug Collins.
US Senator Kelly Loeffler (L), R-GA, and husband Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange and Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, on January 6, 2019.Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia on Wednesday said that she and her CEO husband Jeff Sprecher will liquidate their individual stock share positions and related options after weeks of criticism of the couple for selling millions of dollars in stock amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Loeffler on Wednesday reiterated her defense of the prior stock sales as legally and ethically proper, and her claim that the couple's trading was handled by third parties without her prior knowledge.
And she said that she and Sprecher, who is the chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, are selling off the individual shares not because she had to, but because she wanted to avoid further controversy.
Loeffler, who is the richest member of the Senate, said in a Wall Street Journal opinion page article announcing her decision that her stock holdings would be converted to mutual funds and exchange-traded funds by third-party advisors who handle her investments.
In a statement announcing her liquidation of individual shares, Loeffler, said, "Amid this health crisis, the temptation to circulate lies and misinformation is too great for the media and my political opponents."
"That is why I'm taking steps to remove this temptation so that we can turn our focus back to where it belongs: on combating COVID-19 and restoring our country to health and economic recovery."
The liquidation will be done by the end of the week, said a spokesman for Loeffler. The senator was appointed to her Senate seat by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp at the beginning of January after then-Sen. Johnny Isakson said he was resigning for health reasons before his term expired.
The planned sale was announced two days after a poll showed that Loeffler was 23 percentage points behind Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., who is challenging her in a primary this year.
The poll was released by a consulting firm that works for Collins's campaign.
Loeffler and her husband Sprecher came under fire last month after it was revealed in Senate disclosure filings that that they had sold up to $3 million worth of equities.
Those sales came in advance of a massive drop in stock market indices in reaction to the spread of coronavirus in the United States. The couple's sales may have insulated them losses in the stocks.
The trades came after Loeffler was privately briefed by federal officials about the spread and impact of the coronavirus.
Loeffler's trading as well as other similar stock sales and purchases by other lawmakers, renewed calls by some observers to bar members of Congress from owning individual stock company shares.
Public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that in addition to those trades, Sprecher on Feb. 26 sold $3.5 million in shares of Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE, at an average price of $93.42 each. Other SEC filings show that Sprecher and Loeffler "also sold $15.3 million worth of ICE shares on March 11, at an average price of around $87 per share."Â
In her statement Wednesday announcing the liquidation, Loeffler said, "Let me be clear: I do not have to do this. I've done everything at or above the requirements for complying with the STOCK Act, SEC regulations, Senate Ethics rules, and US law, and of course, will continue to do so,"
Loeffler also said, "I have not profited or attempted to profit at any time based on my service in the Senate."
"Our family's investments have long been managed by outside investment advisors at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Sepio Capital, and Wells Fargo," she said Wednesday in her statement.
"They make their investment decisions for our accounts, including buying and selling securities like stocks and options â without our input, direction or knowledge."
Loeffler said, "All of the individual stock and options holdings in these managed accounts will be liquidated by the investment managers and the proceeds will be reinvested into ETFs and mutual funds."
She said she was selling off the shares because her "transparency" about the stock sales "is being abused for political gain, and the steps I've taken to distance myself from these accounts are being ignored."
"I left the private sector to serve the people of Georgia, not make a profit, and in fact donate my Senate pay to Georgia charities," she wrote in the Journal op-ed.
At least two good-government advocacy groups have filed complaints against Loeffler and other senators in connection with their sales of stocks after a Jan. 24 closed door briefing for senators by federal health officials about the coronavirus outbreak.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in late March issued a sharp warning against trading on nonpublic information related to the coronavirus. The caution came days after news broke about the official disclosures the sales by Loeffler and her husband, as well three other senators: Richard Burr, R-N.C., James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
 Burr has said that his decision to sell in 33 individual transactions what may have been as much as $1.7 million in stock â or nearly all of his net worth â was based "solely on public news reports," including those from CNBC's Asia bureaus about the spread of the coronavirus.
Inhofe has said the sales in his accounts were part of ongoing sales he ordered for all his stocks when he became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in September 2018.
Feinstein has said the reported stock sales on her disclosure were actually made by her husband, and that she had no input his trading moves.
Source: cnbc.com