Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., is probing whether the nation’s top financial regulators are examining a number of trades placed moments before President Donald Trump provided a major update on the Iran war.
In a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig being sent Friday and shared exclusively with CNBC, Liccardo said he wrote to “express alarm over recent reporting that indicates large trades were made on crude oil prices and S&P 500 E-mini Futures right before the President announced action, or lack thereof, in Iran.”
“The timing indicates bets were placed by those with advance knowledge of the President’s action, strongly suggesting illicit trading on insider information, in violation of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936, and the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012,” Liccardo wrote.
A Reuters report on April 8 said that a major bet on oil was placed just hours before a U.S.-Iran ceasefire, resulting in a lucrative payout.
“This activity marks the latest in a series of well-timed, large-volume trades made right before the President announced the next actions of the United States in the Iran war,” said Liccardo, a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, which oversees securities and exchanges.
