Rep. Spencer Bachus Facing Insider Trading Ethics Probe
In a case perfectly timed for the legislative zeitgeist (as Congress just passed two versions of a bill to block insider trading) the head of the House Financial Services Committee faces an ethics probe over allegations of... wait for it... insider trading!
RELATED: Senate Realizes It Can't Not Pass Insider Trading Ban
The Office of Congressional Ethics' investigation into Alabama Republican Spencer Bachus's suspicious trading is the "first of its kind involving a member of Congress," The Washington Post reports. It opened last year, before President Barack Obama called for a bill banning congressional insider trading during the State of the Union Address. But from The Post's report, it sounds like Bachus is in a unique position to make some ethically conflicted trades: "Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who holds one of the most influential positions in the House, has been a frequent trader on Capitol Hill, buying stock options while overseeing the nation’s banking and financial services industries." In fact, Bachus's trades formed part of the impetus for the anti-insider-trading bill, The Post reports, in the form of "a 60 Minutes report and a book mentioning Bachus’s trades, Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer."
