Senator Kelly Loeffler sold a total of $46,027 worth of stock in an online travel company in the day leading up to President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ban on most European travel to the U.S.
Though the transactions were relatively small for Loeffler and her husband -- whose net worth is estimated at more than $500 million -- the sales represented an about-face.
Loeffler, a Georgia Republican, had just days earlier purchased the shares, in Booking Holdings, jointly with her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, the chief executive officer of Intercontinental Exchange, parent firm of the New York Stock Exchange
Booking Holdings provides online bookings for flights, hotels and other travel-related services, all of which have collapsed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The stock was purchased on March 6, the day that Loeffler traveled with Trump, visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta for an update on the coronavirus response, and continuing on a later flight to Florida.
It was sold on March 10 and 11. After the markets closed on March 11, the president announced his European travel restrictions.
The details, provided by the senator’s office, go beyond the financial transaction reports she recently filed that merely require ranges for various holdings.
Last month, news reports about her sales and purchases of other stocks -- after government briefings to Congress on the virus -- caused a stir, with critics questioning whether she was sufficiently focused on her constituents. Some stock sales by another senator, Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, have prompted a government inquiry.
Loeffler said that outside finance professionals manage her portfolio and do so at arm’s length. Her campaign has declined to identify those advisers.
“These transactions are consistent with historical portfolio activity and include a balanced mix of buys and sells,” according to a spokesman, Stephen Lawson. “Her stock portfolio is managed independently by third-party advisors, and she is notified” after transactions occur, he said.
She was appointed in December by Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, to fill out the term of Senator Johnny Isakson, who retired, and is running for the seat this fall.
Her messages on Facebook try to maintain a focus on her efforts to combat the coronavirus and keep Georgia strong. “So, all of these stories that you are seeing attacking me are nothing but fake news. These are politically motivated attacks that prey on the fears of Americans during a global pandemic,” she said in a video posted on Wednesday.
The disclosures present a fuller portrait of the couple’s trading activities this year. The activity shows their advisers taking a number of defensive steps as the markets began to slide.
|