Everyone knows the D.C. Swamp is corrupt. But it’s deeper than you think.
Because this major Republican has been thrown in prison for this stunning crime.
Almost two years in prison was handed down on Tuesday to a former Republican legislator who served as a U.S. Congressman for almost twenty years on insider trading accusations.
Former representative Stephen Buyer was given a 22-month prison term for securities fraud linked to two insider trading scams that occurred in 2018 and 2019.
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman of the Southern District of New York imposed the punishment. It was a shorter sentence than the 36 months the prosecution had asked for.
A member of Congress since 1993, Buyer is currently 64 years old. In 2011, he departed to pursue a career as a consultant for private businesses.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that Buyer “abused positions of trust for illicit personal gain, and today he faced justice for those acts.”
The indictment alleges that Buyer “misappropriated material non-public information” he obtained as a consultant in order to “place timely, profitable securities trades in brokerage accounts in his own name and the names of others.”
According to the prosecution, Buyer invested in Sprint stock before the company announced its $26.5 billion merger with T-Mobile in 2018. Guidehouse, a consulting and advisory firm, purchased Navigant Consulting Inc. in 2019, and it is alleged that he engaged in a separate scam using the shares of that company.
According to the indictment, the purchaser made over $223,000 from the trades he made with Navigant and over $126,000 from the purchase and sale of Sprint stock.
The former lawmaker, according to Buyer’s attorney, plans to appeal.
Anyone who is abusing the system of the federal government, or even state and local level governments, to get a leg up on everyone else with insider information should absolutely face the consequences of going to prison.
Legislators in Congress are not forbidden from engaging in the stock market or some other aspects of the private sector, but when they get inaugurated they are given the rules that they cannot use information that’s exclusive to them or use their position to influence an outcome to enrich themselves.
So while Buyer should face the time for what he’s done, the sad part is that this happens way more than it should. Congressmembers get away with this every single year and nothing ever happens to them.
Former Speaker of the House and Democrat Representative Nancy Pelosi (CA) has a net worth of over $100 million dollars, and much of that has grown just since the 2008 market collapse that hurt millions of Americans.
She’s one of just many Congressmembers who make millions upon millions every year on a salary of less than $200,000 a year. How does that make sense at all?
Sure, there are some members like Thomas Massie from Kentucky who actually built a STEM company and then sold it for millions of dollars. That’s perfectly fine and acceptable in the eyes of the law.
But many Americans believe that plenty of sitting U.S. Congressmembers are absolutely guilty of insider trading that would put them behind bars for years if they were caught or actually held responsible.
A report from the New York Times found that almost 100 members of Congress had managed stock that were at least somewhat related to work they were conducting in Washington, D.C. as an elected representative between the years of 2019 and 2021.
It’s not a partisan issue either. Bureaucrats abusing the system can be easily found within both major political parties. But it needs to end.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
