NEW: Loeffler Disclosures Reveal More Stock Dumping After Private Senate Briefing

Loeffler’s latest disclosures reveal further sell-offs along with investments by her and her husband in a company making medical supplies even while Loeffler publicly continued to downplay the coronavirus threat

ATLANTA — Last night, new reporting revealed more “unseemly” stock transactions made by unelected “political mega-donor” Senator Kelly Loeffler and her husband that “are likely to fuel allegations that Georgia’s new senator used her insider knowledge…to dump holdings” even as she continued to claim “The economy is strong.”

This latest evidence in Loeffler’s stock sell-off scandal shows that Loeffler and her husband dumped millions in shares beyond her initially reported sell-offs while buying stocks “in a company that makes COVID-19 protective garments.” The news also comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) already launched a probe into senators’ stock transactions during the coronavirus outbreak and as Loeffler still has not followed Senator Richard Burr’s example and called for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation.

“This disclosure is just the latest evidence of Senator Kelly Loeffler appearing to put herself over Georgia families during the coronavirus outbreak,” said Alex Floyd, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “It’s well past time for Senator Loeffler to come clean to Georgia voters and call for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation to answer any and all questions about her stock transactions in the middle of a public health crisis.”

Loeffler’s scandal has garnered bipartisan outrage along with scathing criticism from national and local editorial boards like the Savannah Morning News even before this latest disclosure. One Republican candidate has already called for Loeffler’s resignation as a result of her stock dumping scandal.

The Democratic Party of Georgia continues to break down the timeline in Loeffler’s stock sell-off scandal below, including today’s new evidence:

January 24th: Loeffler’s Senate HELP Committee hosts a private all-Senate briefing on the coronavirus threat — and Loeffler begins selling off stocks the very same day.

February 26th: Loeffler’s husband and New York Stock Exchange Chairman Jeffrey Sprecher sells off $3.5 million worth of stock in their company ICE, just over 30 days after Loeffler’s private Senate briefing — the amount of notice ICE requires executives to give before buying or selling shares.

March 10th: Loeffler claims “the economy is strong” and “jobs are growing” even after she and her husband dumped millions worth of stocks.

March 11th: Loeffler and Sprecher sell off another $15.3 million worth of ICE shares — just one day after her claim that “the economy is strong.”

March 20th: As the Daily Beast breaks the news of Loeffler’s stock sell-off scandal, one Republican candidate openly calls for her resignation and calls her “unfit to represent Georgia” as Republican House Speaker David Ralston expresses worries about “down-ticket damage.”

March 21st: The day after a scathing New York Times editorial calling for the Senate to launch a full ethics investigation “and, if warranted…criminal prosecution” against Loeffler, the Savannah Morning News decries her “potential illicit profiteering” and says the “Justice Department and…Securities and Exchange Commission should get involved.”

March 23rd: The SEC issues “a sharp warning” against using “nonpublic information” to trade on the coronavirus outbreak while refusing to comment on whether Loeffler and Sprecher are under investigation — the same day that Mitch McConnell’s super PAC, which had previously spent to boost Loeffler, leaves Georgia off its list of ad buys.

March 27th: Even more members of Loeffler’s own party distance themselves from her, with one prominent conservative calling the accusations against her “very relevant.” Outside Republican groups that previously backed Loeffler, meanwhile, “are now turning their attention elsewhere at a pivotal moment in her campaign.”

March 29th: A new report reveals the DOJ and the SEC have launched a probe into Senators’ stock transactions during the coronavirus outbreak, coming nearly a week after the SEC issued a warning against insider trading during the pandemic and refused to state whether Loeffler and her husband were under investigation.

NEW March 31st: New disclosures reveal even more stock sell-offs by Loeffler while she continued to downplay the threat of coronavirus — and show investments that she and her husband made “in a company that makes COVID-19 protective garments.”

Read the latest coverage about Loeffler’s stock sell-off scandal:

AJC: Loeffler reports more stock sales amid insider trading allegations

• U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s most recent financial disclosures show that millions of dollars in stocks were sold on her behalf at the same time Congress was dealing with the impact of the coronavirus.

• The largest transactions — and the most politically problematic — involve $18.7 million in sales of Intercontinental Exchange stock in three separate deals dated Feb. 26 and March 11. Loeffler is a former executive with ICE, and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, is the CEO of the company, which owns the New York Stock Exchange among other financial marketplaces.

• During the same time period reflected on reports filed late Tuesday, the couple also sold shares in retail stores such as Lululemon and T.J. Maxx and invested in a company that makes COVID-19 protective garments.

• The newer stock sales came as the broader markets were diving, and they are likely to fuel allegations that Georgia’s new senator used her insider knowledge about the severity of the pandemic to dump holdings while simultaneously releasing statements about the strength of the American economy and complimenting President Donald Trump on his response.

• The U.S. Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is looking into stock transactions by various lawmakers, CNN reported.

• Loeffler’s public disclosures only go back to the beginning of the year, but much of the sell-off happened after a Jan. 24 senators-only briefing that resulted in Loeffler’s public mention of the coronavirus.

• [Former regional SEC director Walter Jospin said]: “I am sure that the SEC will conduct a full and fair investigation. With that said, these trades were, in the context of a worldwide health and economic crisis, certainly unseemly.”

###