Feinstein prepared to pay fine after failing to properly disclose husband’s stock purchase: Report
Feinstein has been questioned in the past over her husband's investment transactions
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has reportedly offered to pay a fine after she failed to promptly disclose a stock purchase made by her investment banker husband Richard Blum.
Blum reportedly purchased up to $50,000 worth of shares of polling firm The Generation Lab (formerly College Reaction) in August, which was disclosed several weeks after the federal deadline, Business Insider reported on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Feinstein told FOX Business that she became aware of her husband’s investment in the firm during “the course of a review of her husband's transactions" by his company.
“The transaction was reported as soon as the oversight was discovered,” a spokesperson for Feinstein said in a statement. “We can’t speak to why it had been previously overlooked but have been assured that personnel involved in her husband’s transactions are aware of the reporting requirements."
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The transaction was disclosed at the beginning of January, according to Business Insider.
Reporting requirements among lawmakers necessitate that transactions exceeding $1,000 are disclosed no later than 30 days after receiving “notification” of the transaction, but in no case later than 45 days after such transaction. It pertains to lawmakers themselves, spouses and dependent children.
Feinstein’s office told Business Insider she had not yet been contacted by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics about a potential fine – but she said she is willing to pay upon notification.
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Blum’s trades have come under scrutiny in the past.
Last January and February, he reportedly sold as much as $6 million worth of a biotechnology stock – Allogene Therapeutics – before the pandemic outbreak sent stocks tumbling. The transactions were also believed to have taken place around the time that senators were briefed on possible spread of the virus in the U.S., though Feinstein said she was not present at that briefing.
The New York Times reported in April that Feinstein was asked “basic questions” by law enforcement about stock transactions her husband had engaged in. She maintained that she had no involvement.
Blum was also named as potentially playing a role in the college admissions scandal, where he may have helped students gain inappropriate admittance to the University of California school system.