On June 17, Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi exercised options he had purchased a year earlier to purchase 20,000 shares of stock in semiconductor manufacturing company Nvidia at a price of $100 per share, according to a disclosure filed by the speaker. Nvidia shares traded at between $160 and $169 the following day when markets opened.
Two days after Pelosi bought the stocks, the Senate voted to proceed to consider a bill that would provide about $52 billion in subsidies over the next five years to the U.S. semiconductor industry. Nvidia stock jumped to around $181 a share following that vote.
Donald Shaw
Trades like that have stoked suspicion that Paul Pelosi, an investment banker, may be making stock trades based on non-public information he receives from his wife, which would violate anti-corruption laws. In a July 20 letter to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) accused Speaker Pelosi and her husband of “cashing in” through what he describes as “arguably inappropriate stock trading activities.” Nancy Pelosi denied that her husband has ever made trades using information she gave him during a July 21 press conference.
Nancy Pelosi is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, and the couple’s net worth has increased rapidly over the past few years. After generally hovering near an estimated $100 million throughout the 2010s, the Pelosis’ net worth began shooting up in 2020 and by the end of 2021 had reached more than $171 million, according to Sludge’s review of financial disclosures.
In 2021 alone, the Pelosis’ estimated net worth increased by $38.9 million, the largest annual increase the couple has enjoyed in all but one other year since 2010.
Members of Congress disclose the value of their assets and liabilities in broad ranges, and Sludge determines net worth estimates by calculating the average value of a members’ assets and unearned income and subtracting the average value of their reported liabilities.
