The Securities and Exchange Commission has revealed they are investigating Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) after he and his relatives liquidated their stock portfolios before the coronavirus sent the economy into a nosedive.

In 2020, ProPublica was at the forefront of the news that Burr sold nearly $1.6 million of his stock holdings the week before the pandemic caused an economic crash. On the same day, Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, reportedly sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares in several companies that were caught in the market drop.

Burr stepped down as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee amid these developments; but not only that, his phone was confiscated by investigators, and his case was left under indefinite review by the Justice Department. While federal prosecutors declined to charge Burr, ProPublica has reviewed new filings from the SEC, and they reported an ongoing insider trading investigation into Burr and Fauth’s trading.

Here’s how the outlet described Burr’s communications with Fauth:

After Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina dumped more than $1.6 million in stocks in February 2020 a week before the coronavirus market crash, he called his brother-in-law, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

They talked for 50 seconds.

Burr, according to the SEC, had material nonpublic information regarding the incoming economic impact of coronavirus.

The very next minute, Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, called his broker.

The anecdote comes after previous reports alleged Burr warned Republican donors that Covid’s economic impact would be worse than initially thought. Burr denied those claims. ProPublica’s new report says the SEC “alleges, for the first time, that Burr had material nonpublic information about the economic impact of the coming coronavirus crisis, based on his role at the time as chairman of the intelligence committee, as a member of the health committee and through former staffers who were directing key aspects of the government response to the virus.”

The report comes as the SEC is pressuring Fauth to comply with a subpoena after repeated attempts to dodge it. Burr’s office declined to comment on the story to ProPublica, and the senator is forgoing re-election.

The post SEC Reportedly Finds Richard Burr Had Nonpublic Information on Pandemic When He Dumped Stocks Before Covid Market Crash first appeared on Mediaite.

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