Senator Loeffler Faces Intense Criticism Over Her Pre-COVID-19 Stock Selloff

Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia Republican, recently appeared on Fox News to defend her January 24, 2020 purge and grab of over a million dollars in equities that just happened to be aligned with the coronavirus pandemic that would soon shake the world. And, the favorable shakeup of her assets just happened to take place just a day following her attendance of a private Senate Health Commission hearing concerning the coronavirus. Loeffler is now attempting to explain the suspect timing to her the public.

Prior to her 2020 governor-appointed Senate seat, Loeffler served as CEO of Bakkt, which is a digital asset custody service subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange. She’s also a part owner in the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream team. Loeffler has already announced her intention to run in the upcoming 2020 special election to fill her seat by public vote.

On March 21, Loeffler took to Fox News in an attempt to distance herself from the January equites sale. She claimed that she wasn’t involved in the buying and selling decision making process of her assets. According to Loeffler, an array of decisions regarding her investment portfolios, including 401k and savings, are made daily without her direct involvement.

Loeffler also pointed to her personal transaction reports, which allegedly have a notice at the end about the timing of notifications. Loeffler claims these reports show that she’s only informed several weeks after the transactions have already taken place.

On the Tucker Carlson Show, Loeffler echoed the same statement. She explained that a third party or advisor team makes the decisions related to her portfolio management. It’s a practice she says dates back to her time in the financial services industry. “I am only informed after those trades are made,” she says is the most important thing. She denies having any say in the what or when related to executed buys and sells and says her becoming informed is “almost concurrent with the public reporting that we do here.”

What’s so suspect about Loeffler’s equity offload? Her third party investment team sold off over $1 million in stocks through 27 sell orders executed on January 24, the timing of which just narrowly avoided significant losses in the recent record-breaking slump and occurred one day after she become privy to coronavirus information.

Loeffler’s third party investment team also purchased shares in a company poised to do well in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Two investments in the six-figure range were made into Citrix, which is a teleconferencing firm.

She explained the suspect activity off as a fluke, saying that investors can’t see into the future of any trade and that these trades were “very routine.”

In addition to Loeffler’s very suspect buying and selling activities, she faces a great deal of public and political scrutiny for statements she made after the coronavirus became public news. On March 10, as news about the COVID-19 heightened and months after her investment portfolio was redirected, Loeffler tweeted this about #coronavirus concerns: “...The consumer is strong, the economy is strong, & jobs are growing, which puts us in the best economic position to tackle #COVID19 & keep Americans safe.”