Nancy Pelosi's husband sold more than $500,000 worth of Visa stock less than three months before the credit-card giant was indicted on federal antitrust charges, public records show.
Visa said on Tuesday that the company They're illegally monopolizing the debit card market. This is the culmination of a years-long investigation by the Department of Justice's antitrust division.
According to court documents, Visa is alleged to have used its dominant market position to the detriment of customers and merchants who use competing payment processors.
Antitrust regulators also allege that Visa is forcing financial technology companies to cooperate by threatening to fine those that don't.
The Post has reached out to Visa for comment.
Meanwhile, tech entrepreneur Christopher Josephs, who runs the “Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker” on X, posted screenshots of a July 3 congressional filing showing that Paul Pelosi, husband of the former Speaker of the House, sold 2,000 shares of Visa stock worth between $500,000 and $1 million.
Disclosure documents list Pelosi's transactions as “SP,” or spouse, a reference to her husband, Paul, a San Francisco-based venture capitalist and real estate investor.
At the time Paul Pelosi sold his Visa shares, there was no public indication that an antitrust lawsuit against the company was imminent.
Visa shares were down 5% in late trading on Tuesday.
“Speaker Pelosi does not own any securities and had no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,” a spokesman for the congresswoman told The Washington Post.
However, critics argue that Nancy Pelosi's high position in Washington means she may have access to non-public information relevant to the markets.
“At various key junctures in history, government officials have engaged in transactions that raised questions about conflicts of interest,” Ron Geffner, a former enforcement counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission, told the Post.
Geffner said any impression of wrongdoing should be tempered by other factors.
“Before the public judges Pelosi unfairly, it's important to determine who made the deal on her behalf and whether it was part of a broader shift in her portfolio,” Geffner added.
The July 3 disclosure also revealed that Paul Pelosi sold 2,500 shares of Tesla stock, at the same time he was buying up shares of Nvidia and Broadcom.
Despite stepping down as Speaker of the House early last year, Nancy Pelosi remains a key Democratic power and, together with her husband, owns a vast stock and investment portfolio that gives her a nine-figure net worth.
The San Francisco Democrat has long resisted calls from a bipartisan group of lawmakers to ban stock trading by lawmakers and their spouses, citing the inherent conflict of interest.
In 2021, Visa disclosed in a regulatory filing that the Justice Department's Antitrust Division had requested information about potential violations of laws regulating competitive conduct in the marketplace. According to the Financial Times.
Federal antitrust investigators are reportedly looking into Visa's relationships with companies like Square, Stripe and PayPal.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Visa reportedly made offers to these companies Financial incentives to prevent these companies from using competing payment processors.
The Justice Department was reportedly keen to investigate whether PayPal was coerced by Visa into using Visa-branded cards to make payments to its customers.
Visa also allegedly offered Square subsidiary Cash App lower fees and other incentives in exchange for enticing customers to use Visa-branded services to conduct transactions.
Visa said it had been asked to turn over information about its conduct in its U.S.-based debit card business.
The company said at the time that it “believes its operations regarding Visa U.S. debit cards comply with applicable law.”
Visa said last year that federal prosecutors had requested more documents as part of the same investigation.
The San Francisco-based company said at the time that it was cooperating with the investigation.
