NEW: Perdue Stock Trades “Increased Nearly Threefold” During Coronavirus Outbreak

Even as he praised botched White House response and was voting on relief bills, Perdue stock trading shot up during the outbreak, including investments in key companies

ATLANTA — A new AJC report breaks down Senator David Perdue’s “heavy trading” just as the coronavirus outbreak was beginning to spread in the US — along with Perdue’s investments in key companies like Netflix and “a chemical company that supplies personal protective equipment” and his sell-off of shares in casino giant Caesars.

Perdue’s ”nearly threefold” increase in stock trading came while he praised the White House response to coronavirus, despite new reports indicating the administration “wasted” months that could have been used to secure personal protective equipment (PPE) as Trump himself has refused to reopen health care exchanges. 

Like his fellow Republican Senate colleague Kelly Loeffler, Perdue still deflects blame on to “third party advisors” managing his account even as another Republican senator facing similar charges of improper stock trades is calling for his own ethics investigation.

“Senator Perdue’s latest disclosure shows he still has plenty of questions to answer from Georgia voters about his stock trading history in the middle of a pandemic,” said Alex Floyd, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “After downplaying the coronavirus threat and playing politics with critical relief votes, it’s time for both Senator Perdue and Senator Loeffler to be honest with Georgians about their coronavirus stock trading and explain why they seemed more focused on their financial portfolios than Georgians’ well-being.”

Read the latest about Perdue’s own stock trading scandal:

AJC: David Perdue’s stock trading saw an uptick as coronavirus took hold

• U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s financial portfolio saw heavy trading during the month of March, a period during which Congress passed three different spending bills to address the spread of COVID-19.

• The report lists 112 transactions, including 76 stock purchases costing as much as $1.8 million and 34 sales worth up to $825,000. Compared with the 13-month period before the coronavirus swept across America, Perdue’s portfolio activity has increased nearly threefold. There were an average of 38 individual transactions in monthly reports from January 2018 through February 2020.

• Georgia’s senior senator, who is up for re-election this year, faced questions last month about his trading during the coronavirus pandemic and whether he used insider information to inform those decisions.

• As trading by Perdue and other senators during the pandemic is scrutinized, securities law experts and some Democrats have said the law should be changed to prohibit members of Congress from buying or selling stocks for individual companies.

• [Perdue] made a number of purchases of stock in DuPont de Nemours, a chemical company that supplies personal protective equipment used by people trying to avoid exposure to the virus. That includes buying shares worth as much as $65,000 on Jan. 24, the same day that the Senate held a members-only briefing on the novel coronavirus.

• In total, Perdue reported 10 different DuPont stock purchases through March 2, representing an investment of up to $185,000.

• He also continued to sell off shares of Caesar Entertainment, the casino company whose properties were shuttered as the virus spread. On March 26 the senator invested up to $50,000 in streaming provider Netflix, which has seen a surge in traffic as people stay home.

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