While Anna Paulina Luna continues to push for a ban on congressional stock trading, she forgets to share the fact that she would still be able to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into companies owned by her donors.
Reporting from NBC News revealed that Luna invested between $250,001 and $500,000 into one of her political donors – which she cowardly defended by saying she doesn’t own stocks, but that “she has another kind of ‘investment.’”
What’s worse: the “significant” investment is in America First Natural Resources LLC, while Luna coincidentally sits on the House Natural Resource Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Talk about irony.
DCCC Spokesperson Madison Andrus:
“If there’s one thing Floridians count on, it’s that Anna Paulina Luna will put her shady behavior ahead of her constituents. Luna’s games are fooling no one, and it should come as no surprise as she continues to grift through Congress and lie to her voters.”
Read more:
NBC News: Rep. Luna’s investment in a donor’s energy firm illustrates potential limits of a stock trading ban
- Luna’s most recent financial disclosure statement shows she has a significant investment of her own, illustrating how lawmakers could hold assets that pose potential conflicts of interest, even if the stock trading ban that she’s pushed for becomes law.
- Luna reported in July on a financial disclosure form that she has invested $250,001 to $500,000 in America First Natural Resources LLC, a company founded and managed by one of her political donors, Bruce N. Rosenthal, who has described it as a private equity firm focused on domestic energy exploration and production.
- Luna’s office said she owns no stock in America First Natural Resources (AFNR), emphasizing that she has another kind of “investment” and that she does not own any kind of stock in any company.
- “You don’t need to be an ethics expert to see the problem with a member of Congress investing in a donor’s company that could likely be affected by the decisions of one of her committees…,” said Donald K. Sherman, the executive director and chief counsel at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.
- Luna sits on both the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees energy and mining on federal lands, and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which investigates government abuse, but her office said she is not a member of panels that have jurisdiction over her investments.
- The nonpartisan independent Project on Government Oversight (POGO), which has endorsed the proposed stock ban, said lawmaker investments focused on a specific industry, like Luna’s in energy, raise red flags.
- They are “ripe for manipulation or ripe for some kind of conflict of interest,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, who heads policy and government affairs at POGO.
|
