Earlier this month,
it was reported that less than two weeks before the economic collapse of 2008,
several members of Congress took their money out of the stock market. Many high
ranking government employees were given a heads-up about the impending market
crash in secret meetings with the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.
Then they used that information to engage in insider trading.
It was revealed
that Senator Shelley Capito and her husband sold $350,000 worth of Citigroup
stock at $83 per share, just one day before the stock dropped to $64 per share.
Another shady trader was Congressman Jim Moran, who had his biggest trading day
of the year days after the secret meeting, sellings stock in nearly 100
different companies.
These actions would
be illegal for any American in any other circumstance, but members of Congress
and high-ranking government officials are actually exempt from insider trading
laws. Years later, a 60 minutes investigation aired on television which
highlighted the government’s deep history of insider trading. The investigation
sparked outrage, prompting Congress to pass “the STOCK Act” which was said to
hold members of the government to the same standards as any American when it
came to insider trading.
However, Congress
watered down the bill and changed key elements that would hold them
accountable, allowing them to return to business as usual, and escape any
consequences for their prior crimes.
In an interview
during the 60 minutes investigation, Peter Schweizer of the Hoover Institute told Steve
Kroft that “It’s really
the way the rules have been defined. And the people who make the rules are the
political class in Washington and they’ve conveniently written them in such a
way that they don’t apply to themselves.”
“These
meetings were so sensitive– that they would actually confiscate cell phones and
Blackberries going into those meetings. What we know is that those meetings
were held one day and literally the next day Congressman Bachus would engage in
buying stock options based on apocalyptic briefings he had the day before from
the Fed chairman and treasury secretary. I mean, talk about a stock tip,” he
added.
Since it was
passed, the STOCK Act has been more or less worthless. Whenever a politician is
accused of anything, they are defended by other politicians and the
investigation is immediately stonewalled. For example, a former staffer for the
House Ways and Means Committee, Brian Stutter was guilty of insider trading.
However, he avoided charges because House Speaker John Boehner refused to hand
over the evidence, and claimed that Sutter had legal immunity.
It seems that
America operates on two different sets of laws – one set for those who claim to
rule us, and another for everyone else.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/12_Days_Before_%E2%80%9908_Crash%2C_Congress_was_Secretly_Told_to_Sell_Off_Their_Stocks/46973/0/38/38/Y/M.html
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