Undisclosed stock trades on Capitol Hill have become a rather rare occurrence. To be more precise, most congresspeople comply with regulations, which give them a 45-day window to file all of their trades. However, every once in a while, something does slip through the cracks.
Finbold’s congressional trading radar recently picked up on one such occurrence. On April 11, Jamie Raskin, the representative of Maryland’s 8th congressional district, disclosed a suspicious stock trade, a sale made five months earlier, in November.
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Raskin has a history of undisclosed stock trades
To be more precise, Raskin sold between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of AT&T stock (NYSE: T) on November 13. At the time, T shares were changing hands at a price of $22.30.
By press time on April 14, AT&T shares were trading at $26.89, some 20.58% higher than at the time of Raskin’s sale. At present, T stock is up 18.07% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis.
What’s more, per the hand-written and hand-delivered document, this was a full sale — Raskin no longer holds AT&T stock.
Here is where things get interesting. This suspicious stock trade is Raskin’s third time violating the STOCK Act in three years — and as the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, he is far from ignorant regarding the law. Moreover, during the last congressional session, Raskin was also the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
There isn’t a clear record as to when the congressman bought the high-dividend stock, so estimating the returns from this undisclosed and suspicious stock trade is difficult. Thanks to a report made on August 13, 2021, we do know that Raskin owned AT&T stock at that time due to it being listed as a source of dividend payments.
At that time, AT&T shares were trading at $21.29. With that as a baseline, the representative has made at least a 4.74% return, although the actual returns he made could be significantly higher. Raskin will be fined a total of $200 for his undisclosed trade.
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