Mosaic ImmunoEngineering is a nanotechnology-based immunotherapy company developing therapeutics and vaccines to positively impact the lives of patients and their families.

Free
Message: Re: ITC investigation 2904--Laurie,-Stock Act info
4
Aug 21, 2012 10:48AM

Aug 21, 2012 11:07AM

Since PTSC trades in the open market and because someone in government has recused themselves from a case involving PTSC I am posting this info.

Here is a link to the full text of the law: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s2038/text

And here is part of an article ( and link ) about the law and its history:

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act prohibits members and employees of Congress from using "any nonpublic information derived from the individual's position… or gained from performance of the individual's duties, for personal benefit.” The bill also applies to all employees in the Executive and Judicial branches of the federal government. The STOCK Act requires a one-year study of the growing "political intelligence” industry, and requires every Member of Congress to publicly file and disclose any financial transaction of stocks, bond, commodities futures, and other securities within 45 days on their websites, rather than once a year as they do now. The Act also requires members of Congress and Executive branch officials to disclose the terms of mortgages on their homes, prohibits them from receiving special access to initial public stock offerings, and denies federal pensions to members of Congress who are convicted of felonies involving public corruption.

The US House of Representatives Ethics Manual states that its members should "never use any information coming to him confidentially in the performance of governmental duties as a means for making private profit," and the Senate Ethics Manual states that its Conflict of Interest Rule 37(1) provides for "a broad prohibition against members, officers or employees deriving financial benefit, directly or indirectly, from the use of their official position[s].” No arrests or prosecutions, however, have ever been made against members of Congress for insider trading based on nonpublic congressional knowledge.

While Members of Congress are not exempt from federal securities laws (including insider trading prohibitions), it remains unclear whether a member of Congress has a fiduciary duty to the United States (misappropriating information gained through an employment relationship is illegal, but case law conflicts as to whether members of Congress actually constitute "employees” of the federal government), whether the information on which the Member trades is "material” (Is there "a substantial likelihood” that a reasonable investor "would consider it important” in making an investment decision?), and whether the information on which the member traded is "nonpublic.”

The STOCK Act was originally introduced in the 109th session of the House of Representatives on Mar. 28, 2006 by Brian Baird (D-WA) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) where it died in committee. It was reintroduced in the 110th (May 16, 2007) and 111th (Jan. 26, 2009) House sessions where it also died in committee.

here is the link to the rest of the article: http://insidertrading.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004520

Share
New Message
Please login to post a reply