Elon Musk's Twitter purchase proved lucrative for one Texas congressman

• Rep. Pat Fallon recently called Elon Musk's Twitter takeover "the best $44 billion I've seen spent in recent history."
• Fallon invested at least $65,000 in Twitter stock in January 2022 and sold his shares when Musk bought the company.
• With Musk's purchase, Insider calculated Fallon could have earned as much as $35,000 in profit.

Rep. Pat Fallon, a Republican of Texas who cheered Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, made a potentially significant profit from his own investment in the social media company, according to an Insider analysis of congressional financial documents.

Insider calculated that Fallon made a profit of between $34,000 and $35,000 from selling his shares in Twitter as part of the company going private.

Fallon, who was first elected in 2020, is both frequent tweeter — he posts from his official congressional account on a near-daily basis — in addition to being a Twitter investor.

While Fallon traded Twitter stock on and off in 2021, his annual financial disclosure notes he ended the year with no Twitter holdings.

But he purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of Twitter stock on January 19, 2022, and $50,001 and $100,000 worth of stock just five days later. (Federal lawmakers are only required to report the value of their stock trades in broad ranges.)

Records show that Fallon held onto his shares until Musk purchased the company in October and took it private. Stock holders received a payout of $54.20 per share if they held their shares to the end.

Fallon did not disclose the exact value of his stock purchases nor how many shares he held. But based on the share price of Twitter stock on the days Fallon bought his shares, compared to the significantly increased price of his Twitter stock on the day he sold them, it's clear the value of the congressman's investment grew by tens of thousands of dollars.

Insider calculated that Fallon gained more than $6,500 from his January 19 investment and at least $27,000 from his on January 24.

Fallon's office did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

But Fallon has been an outspoken fan of Musk's Twitter takeover — on Saturday, for example, he told Newsmax that Musk's recent purchase of Twitter was the "best $44 billion I've seen spent in recent history."

A conflicted Congress

Since Insider first published its "Conflicted Congress" series in December 2021, which revealed numerous financial conflicts of interest and violations of federal disclosure law — including by Fallon — Congress itself has actively considered banning lawmakers and their spouses from trading individual stocks.

But Democratic leadership punted a vote on a bill until after the 2022 midterms, and time is running out for Congress to pass the legislation.

Prior to the election, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that he was open to the idea of a bill banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks.

McCarthy has been silent on such a bill now that it's clear the GOP has enough seats to control the House next term.

In his speech declaring to run for president, former President Donald Trump endorsed the idea of banning members of Congress from trading stocks.

"We want a ban on members of Congress getting rich by trading stocks on insider information," Trump said.

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By: [email protected] (Madison Hall)
Title: Elon Musk's Twitter purchase proved lucrative for one Texas congressman
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-congress-pat-fallon-stock-purchase-sale-2022-12
Published Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2022 19:03:46 +0000

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