Pressure Continues to Mount on Gianforte, As Questions Swirl Around Pandemic Profiteering, Broken Blind Trust Pledge
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, April 20, 2020
CONTACT
press@montanademocrats.org
Pressure Continues to Mount on Gianforte, As Questions Swirl Around Pandemic Profiteering, Broken Blind Trust Pledge
Helena, MT – Still facing accusations of insider trading from Attorney General Tim Fox’s campaign, Rep. Greg Gianforte continues to face intense scrutiny over his efforts to profit from the COVID-19 outbreak. New reporting from the Daily Inter Lake continues to shine light on Gianforte’s immoral investments, and details his broken pledge to set aside his assets in a blind trust.
Since the beginning of the year, Greg Gianforte has invested heavily in pharmaceutical, medical supply, and consulting companies connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Inter Lake writes, “Gianforte has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in companies involved in industries that stand to benefit from COVID-19. The actual number could be anywhere from $300,000 to near $1 million.” In March – as Montanans began to fall ill to the virus – Gianforte invested tens of thousands more dollars in several COVID-19 related stocks, each of which has increased in value by at least 11% in the past month alone.
Throughout the reporting on Gianforte’s pandemic profiteering, it has become clear that he broke his promise to set aside his enormous wealth in a blind trust – a model designed to prevent elected officials from using their office to benefit their investment portfolios. After being caught lying, Gianforte now claims to manage his money through an invented scheme, which, as noted in Daily Inter Lake, “allow[s] Gianforte to see where the money is going, defeating the purpose of a blind trust… his recent investments, at minimum, appear to breach the public trust.”
“Greg Gianforte is now being compared to disgraced Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and Richard Burr. Gianforte’s efforts to profit from a pandemic – when he is already the wealthiest elected member of Congress – is an embarrassment to Montana,” said MDP Executive Director, Sandi Luckey. “Gianforte lied to Montanans when he told them he’d place his assets in a blind trust. Now he’s being accused of insider trading by the campaign of the sitting Montana Attorney General. Montanans know this self-dealing, immoral behavior doesn’t belong in Congress, not to mention our Governor’s mansion.”
###