Happy 71st birthday, Senator David Perdue. If past is precedent, we can only assume that you’ll be spending your special day partaking in your favorite activity: insider trading.
A Walk Down Senator David Perdue’s Insider Trading Memory Lane:
December 10, 1949
David Alfred Perdue Jr. is born
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November 4, 2014
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Perdue is elected to the United States Senate to represent the State of Georgia.
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November 2015
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David Perdue sells his stocks in Devon Energy.
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Over the course of the next month the stock falls by 30 percent.
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January/February 2016
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Senate announces it is holding a hearing on the opioid epidemic in the US.
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In the seven days before the hearing, Perdue invests four times in Haylard, a company that sells medical devices that assists in providing pain management alternatives to opioids.
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After the hearing, Perdue kept right on purchasing Halyard stock, purchasing the company’s stock six more times, through the end of February 2016.
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The value of the stock rose by as much as $13 per share when Perdue began selling it later that year – giving him a 33 to 54% profit.
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Early 2017-2019
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Perdue is credited for rolling back regulations the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had imposed on the prepaid debit card industry.
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From June 2017 – April 2019, Perdue actively invests in card payment processor First Data, which held a lot of interest in the prepaid debit card industry.
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Perdue repeatedly bought First Data stock, sold it off, then bought it again in transactions that coincided with policy announcements affecting the company and a major merger that sent its stock price soaring.
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Perdue received campaign contributions from First Data executives.
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2017-2018
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In September 2017, Perdue pushed to roll back financial regulations, including co-sponsoring a Senate bill that would reduce financial regulations on medium-sized banks like Regions Financial.
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Throughout 2017 and early 2018 David Perdue loads up on stocks for Regions bank, including making a dozen purchases of shares just months before his legislation is introduced.
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Between Perdue’s first purchase of Regions stock in 2017 and the time the bill was signed in 2018, the bank’s shares rallied 35 percent.
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The chief executive of Regions has contributed to Perdue’s re-election campaign.
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2017-Ongoing
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David Perdue is a member of the Senate banking, housing, and urban affairs committee.
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Perdue bought and sold shares from companies including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Regions Financial.
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All financial companies this panel oversaw.
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David Perdue is a member of the Senate’s cybersecurity subcommittee.
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Beginning in 2016, Perdue bought and sold FireEye stock 61 times, at one point owning as much as $250,000 worth of shares in the company.
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Perdue promoted and made recommendations based on reports by FireEyre, a cybersecurity company.
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While he sat on the committee, FireEyre secured a $30 million dollar contract with the Army Cyber Command.
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Perdue reported $15,000 in capital gains from his trades involving the company.
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January-July 2019
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David Perdue becomes chairman of the Senate Armed Services’ seapower subcommittee.
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One month prior: Perdue had acquired $190,000 worth of stock in BWX Technologies.
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Perdue secures a multibillion-dollar contract for submarines that BWX Technologies provides components for.
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From February to July, as he was working for that submarine funding, Perdue reported selling off all his shares of BWX—reaping a healthy profit of $15,000 to $50,000.
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January-March 2020
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Perdue sold $1 million in stock in the financial company Cardlytics, where Perdue once served on the board.
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Two days before: CEO sent Perdue an email alluding to “upcoming changes.”
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Six weeks after Perdue’s stock selling, the company’s share price tumbled when the company’s founder announced he would step down as chief executive and the firm said its future sales would be worse than expected.
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After the company’s stock price bottomed out at $29, Perdue bought back a substantial portion of the shares that he had sold, and they are now trading at around $120 per share.
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The Cardlytics transactions drew the attention of investigators at the Justice Department.
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January 2020
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The Senate held a private, Members-only meeting to brief them about the COVID-19 outbreak and the impact the pandemic would have in the United States.
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January 2020-March 2020
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The same day of the COVID-19 briefing, Perdue bought as much as $65,000 of stock in DuPont, a company that makes personal protective equipment trying to avoid exposure to the virus.
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In total, Perdue reported 10 different DuPont stock purchases through March 2, representing an investment of up to $185,000.
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February 2020
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Perdue purchases $260,000 worth of stock in Pfizer between Feb.26-28, in the early days of a market downturn.
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On the 28th, he issued a news release reporting that he had regularly attended briefings led by the coronavirus task force; records subsequently showed that he had bought the third tranche of Pfizer shares that same day.
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February & March 2020
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Perdue sold stocks in entertainment company Caesars, whose casino business which would be hit by the pandemic.
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March 2020
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As the pandemic took hold in March, Perdue’s stock trading activity increased nearly threefold compared to the previous 26 months.
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Today: December 10, 2020
David Alfred Perdue Jr. is a corrupt senator who uses his position of power for financial gain.
Happy birthday, Senator Perdue. Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been over 462,000 cases of COVID-19 in Georgia, including at least 9,123 Georgians who lost their lives. Meanwhile, in your first term in the Senate, your transactions have accounted for nearly a third of all senators’ trades. 2,596 trades takes a lot of time and effort. While you reflect on your birthday, we hope you spend less time enriching yourself and more time working for Georgia families.
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