Lets say our government is going to pass along a nice size contract to a small cap defense contractor.....The members of congress who are privledged to this information are legally allowed to buy the equity in this stock before the rest of the public and possibly even the company find out about this contract....Is this considered inside information?
Of course it is.....and until this joke of an exception to the inside information trading laws get changed to make it fair and balanced for everyone (public, investment banks, hedge funds and congress alike) we are doomed to cover ups and scandals similiar to the John Mack situation that happened this week.....
Example:-----CA Democratic Senator Dianne Fienstien and her husband Richard Blum who owns 75% of all voting shares of (PCR---Perini Corp).....Feinstein is a member of the U.S. Senate Committees on:
Appropriations, Rules and Administration, Intelligence, Judiciary, and Energy and Natural Resources.
In April 2003, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave $500 million to Perini to provide services for Iraq's Central Command. A month earlier in March 2003, Perini was awarded $25 million to design and construct a facility to support the Afghan National Army near Kabul. And in March 2004, Perini was awarded a hefty contract worth up to $500 million for "electrical power distribution and transmission" in southern Iraq.
Feinstein, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee as well as the Select Committee on Intelligence, is reaping the benefits of her husband's investments. It's a disgusting display of war profiteering.....Not only is it inside information, but it is creating real positive actions through the use of political power and tax payers dollars for ones own portfolio...
But what I find of even greater interest is the fact
that the New York Times published an article earlier
this month reporting that the Perini Corporation was
awarded its $100 million contract "confidentially" --
much in the same manner by which Bush administration
has been disbursing business to other companies it
enjoys a close relationship with:
"For some of the reconstruction work in and
around Iraq, the United States Army Corps
of Engineers confidentially awarded a
one-year contract worth up to $100 million
on April 1 to the Perini Corporation,
which had revenue of barely $1 billion
last year. The agency released a brief
statement about the award on April 4,
but Perini did not receive clearance to
issue its own statement about the
significant chunk of business until
April 8. By then, its stock had climbed
more than 40 percent." ("The Catch-22
Of Iraq Contracts," Diana B. Henriques,
April 12, 2003, New York Times)
ALSO
News alert! has learned that the Perini Corp., a Massachusetts company controlled by an investment group headed up by California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, banker Richard Blum, has become the focus of a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, alleging massive fraud in the construction of the Los Angeles subway system. This one has big-time political implications.
The lawsuit, which names as defendants Tutor-Saliba Corp., California's largest contractor, and the Perini Corp., owned by an investment group headed up by Blum, alleges that Tutor-Saliba-Perini used dummy minority business enterprises to land contracts on the subway portion of the 57-mile Los Angeles Metro Rail line. The lawsuit also alleges that the white-owned firms set up dummy companies that were "either not qualified or in whom they owned a disclosing interest."
The lawsuit alleges that Tutor-Saliba-Perini worked with subcontractors to present false claims for work on the Los Angeles subway to obtain millions of dollars for additional payments.
Didn't here about this on scandal on TV anywhere....
I post this incase you people still think we are a two party system always working against each other in the public eye, but really just a blue and red mix I like to call our purple government....
She even looks like a die hard right winger
Bottom line I wish I could turn my dog from a $4 stock to a $30 in two years...
$COSTAverageMAN
