Insider trading is alive and well in congress and it's still legal.
Everyone knows that if you walk into a senator’s office and offer them money for a favor, you’re both going to jail. However if you offer access to an IPO (Initial Public Offering), it is completely legal. After Congress passed STOCK Act in 2011, congressional insider trading, legally, should have come to a halt. The act, which was passed after a 60 Minute Report exposed what is essentially legal insider trading in Congress, made little changes. It was supposed to make trading done by congressmen more transparent by creating online disclosure requirements. About a year after it passed, Congress quietly repealed some of the key provisions leaving the act basically meaningless. The SEC should be investigating this; however, Congress makes their budget and the commissioners are all appointed by the senate.
Access to IPOs is still legal and many of the disclosure requirements have been repealed. After all of this, now congress is trying to prevent the first ever investigation into Congressional insider trading under the STOCK Act. According to reports, John Boehner's hand picked lawyers are allegedly stonewalling the investigation so that congressmen can continue to engage in shady trading for their own profit.
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