An environmentalist Democratic congressman acknowledged that his wife purchased — then quickly dumped — nearly 100 stocks in various oil, energy, tobacco, defense and other companies, blaming a new investment firm for going on an erroneous stock shopping spree.
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) reported that Nicole Stanton’s 94 stock purchases included shares in fossil fuel giants Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips; power utility NextEra Energy; tobacco company Philip Morris International; transportation companies Union Pacific and Tesla and communications technology company and defense contractor Qualcomm, to name a few.
Stanton explained the apparent snafu in a Nov. 9 disclosure to Congress: “In Sept. 2023, my wife started with a new investment firm for her assets, and this investment firm was unaware of our policy against owning individual stocks. On Sept. 26, the new investment firm purchased stock mimicking the S&P 500. I learned of the purchase of stock on Oct. 21, and immediately on the next business day (Oct. 23) requested the stocks be divested. The new investment firm sold the stock and instead invested in Exchange Traded Funds.”...
