Jun 26, 2020

Commissioner's Investments During Early Days Of Covid-19 Come Under Scrutiny

 
    From Salon:

In early 2020, Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul engaged in several stock transactions that appear to have anticipated market reactions to the coronavirus crisis, according to financial disclosure forms.

Specifically, Saul made seemingly prescient investments in Abbott Laboratories, UnitedHealth, thecloud workflow company ServiceNow and Eurofins, a foreign company that manufactures personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers, among other things.

Though Saul — a wealthy New York businessman with prior government service and decades of financial expertise — has a substantial and diverse portfolio, the timing of the transactions, together with his activity in the administration and investment experience, is intriguing. ...

Recent disclosure forms, however show that Saul bought shares in Abbott Labs worth between $15,000 and $50,000 on Jan. 15, Feb. 21 and March 16 — the latter date being exactly when the Social Security Administration announced it would close its offices and two days before the Food and Drug Administration approved Abbott's coronavirus test for hospital use.

On March 30, Trump showcased Abbott's rapid-response COVID-19 test, gameshow-style, in a televised Rose Garden address. ...

Along with the Abbott buys, Saul made a string of investments in the insurance company UnitedHealth in late January and March. Though he entered the administration with investments in the company, he did not make any market moves until late January, as administration officials were behaving one way about the virus in private and another in public. ...

On Feb. 7, Saul invested in a company he had not previously: Eurofins Scientific, a medical lab company headquartered in Luxembourg that manufactures PPE. He put between $15,001 and $50,000 into Eurofins that month, then sold an unknown amount, amid widespread outcry about shortages, on March 31. ...

Saul furthered his investment in a company called ServiceNow in January. He dropped an additional $50,001 to $100,000 into the cloud computing company that manages digital workflows on Jan. 21, one week before the company announced a major acquisition. ... 

It is not clear how Saul's investment patterns may have changed since April. He did not respond to Salon's request for comment.

     The implication here is that it's possible that the Commissioner traded stocks based upon insider information. At least, there's no sign that he sold stock that was about to take a tumble, such as airline or hotel stock.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never had any reason to think his decision to seek the job of Commissioner was motivated by anything but self-interest. But jeez. Can you spell scum-bucket, children?

Anonymous said...

Imagine that!

Anonymous said...

All the while he provided no leadership on agency response to COVID until nearly a week into the crisis!

Anonymous said...

You mean he is now? I missed something. So when the doors reopen will management be falling all over themselves giving out awards and kudos to each other for a great job they did?

Anonymous said...

Commissioner Saul terminated telework for thousands of SSA workers last November, then made no move too reinstate it until there was no other choice, in March. The optics of these stock trades do not look good, it looks like he knew things were going to get bad, but he still did not want SSA workers to be able to telework safely from home.

Anonymous said...

ServiceNow is being used by the office of systems. using serviceNow is mandatory