The forgotten COVID lockdown trades that made politicians millions

Congressional trading has become a well-documented and much-discussed phenomenon by 2025 due to the many strange and strangely timed investments made by U.S. politicians.

Indeed, the stock picks of Nancy Pelosi – frequently suspiciously well-timed – or Tina Smith and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz – frequently directly related to the sectors they oversee – have spawned multiple copy-trading strategies and Senatorial trading radars.

The public interest in this type of stock market activity can, arguably, be traced back to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and an insider trading scandal that, ultimately, led nowhere.

VIPs were given more time to prepare for the COVID crash

No matter its reputation in 2025, the early days of the pandemic were marked by much fear and confusion and had a profound impact on the U.S. and the global economy. This fact is evident in the performance chart of the benchmark S&P 500 index, which collapsed approximately 25% from February until it reached its lows in early April.

Though many American investors were severely impacted by the selloff, a handful of politicians evaded the worst of the losses with timely buys and sales. What made matters worse is that leaked information showcased that the assessments of the virus were presented rather differently to the general public and a handful of VIPs.

Enter Senator Richard Burr

Richard Burr, a United States Senator between 2005 and 2023 was one of the chief suspects during the scandal both due to his investments and due to him being the politician to provide different information to the public and to the VIPs.

Burr, who sat in the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, executed 33 transactions on February 13 and offloaded up to $1.7 million worth of stocks. A major focus of the selling effort was in the travel and accommodations sector, which faced severe headwinds during the pandemic.

Extended Stay America – now a private company – and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: WH), as examples of significant dumped assets, plunged significantly in 2020, with WH shares dropping more than 55% between February and April.

Interestingly, Burr was one of the few politicians to vote against the STOCK Act, the lukewarm law passed in 2012 that prevents elected officials from using non-public information when investing.

The (unproven) Senate insider traders

Other Senators were also noted for their suspicious buys and sales in the wake of the closed briefing about the emerging pandemic.

In late January and early February, Kelly Loeffler – now Donald Trump’s Administrator of the Small Business Administration – executed numerous trades, the most interesting of which was the purchase of Citrix Systems – now part of the Cloud Software Group – stock. Citrix shares benefited significantly from the lockdown-era digitalization of global activity.

It is also interesting to note that Loeffler’s husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is the NYSE chairman.

Senator David Perdue also made curious purchases shortly after the briefing. His buying of DuPont equity was especially interesting. Indeed, DuPont (NYSE: DD) is in the business of making personal protective equipment, meaning it had its volume skyrocket during the pandemic.

Senator John Hoeven and Dianne Feinstein were also noted for their trades in the aftermath of the briefing but before the scale and the nature of the response to the virus was made known to the public.

As could, perhaps, be expected, the politicians – Feinstein most notably – attributed the trades to their close family members, claiming they had no say in the decision-making process. Coincidentally, Richard Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, sold up to $280,000 worth of shares on the same day as the Senator.

FBI and SEC investigate for years, press no charges

Both the FBI and the SEC found the senatorial trades suspicious, and the peculiarly timed transaction triggered lengthy investigations into what has become known as the ‘2020 congressional insider trading scandal.’

Despite this and despite the Commission’s probe into Burr’s activity extending into 2023, no charges were pressed against the politicians. 

Though it is entirely possible that the Senators either had no impact on the investment decisions or that their trades were based solely on public information, a more malicious decision not to hold them accountable cannot be completely discounted.

Indeed, Congressional traders are notoriously not penalized even when they break the law, as evidenced by the typical fine for failing to report transactions within the grace period remaining under $200 and with officials like Representative Darrell Issa feeling free to be hundreds of days late with his STOCK Act filings.

Featured image via Shutterstock