A congresswoman from Florida purchased large amounts of stock in a U.S. oil drilling company just as oil and gas prices hit record highs, and just before the beginning of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
According to financial disclosure forms, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-23) purchased up to $45,000 worth of stock in a Houston-based oil drilling company called Patterson UTI Energy.
“As one of the leading oilfield services companies in North America, our success stems from our ready-to-serve culture and commitment to quality and safety,” the company’s website says.
Patterson UTI Energy is publicly traded, mostly on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The company is having a stellar year. Its stock price of $16.25 per share as of Friday is the highest it’s been since October of 2018.
Year-to-date, the company’s price per share has increased from $9.07 to the current $16.25.
In other words, the company’s stock price exploded just as Wasserman Schultz made her investment. In fact, it has outperformed the NASDAQ stock exchange by more than 60 percent this year.
Only a month after her purchases, the conflict between Russia – a significant provider of oil to the United States – and Ukraine broke out, leading to sanctions against Russia, including halting the importation of Russian oil.
This correlated with a massive spike in gas prices, but also in Patterson UTI Energy’s stock prices.
Importantly, Wasserman Schultz is a member of the U.S. House Subcommittee on National Security, raising questions about whether she had foreknowledge of the conflict in Ukraine that led to the recent spike in gas prices. Though gas prices have been rising steadily since President Joe Biden took office, they have hit record highs during the conflict itself.
Asked about these stock purchases and potential conflicts of interest, Wasserman Shultz’s office did not return a comment request.
Insider trading among Congress has become a hot topic.
It was revealed two years ago that Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Richard Burr (R-NC) sold stocks after a private briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic well before the public knew about the pandemic. Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) did the same.
The pandemic led to a severe stock market decline, but the three senators did not have to bear the brunt of the stock price drops.
All three were cleared after an internal government investigation.
Members of Congress have also recently come under fire not just for potential violation of insider trading laws, but also for failing to disclose massive stock purchases, which is a legal requirement as part of their respective positions.
Fifty-seven of them were late – some by a matter of years – in disclosing multi-million dollar stock purchases, according to a compilation by Business Insider.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
