California Sen. Dianne Feinstein found herself added to the list of lawmakers suspected of congressional insider trading, as Throw Them All Out, a new tell all book exposed Feinstein’s past stock market activity.
Throw Them All Out, a novel by investigative reporter Peter Schweizer, hit stores Tuesday and claims that Feinstein used pending legislative information to conduct a million dollar investment. Schweizer claims that on November 18th, 2009, Feinstein and her husband invested $1 million into Amyris Biotechnologies, a green biotechnology company that produces plant based renewable fuels.
As biggovernment.com reports, several weeks after Feinstein’s investment, Amyris received a $24 million grant from the Department of Energy, and went public the following year, earning a reported $85 million.
Adding more validity to the book, was a study from the Center for Responsive Politics released Tuesday that reported the net worth of all 535 members of Congress. Feinstein is reportedly worth $69 million, making the San Fransisco Democrat the 11th wealthiest member of Congress.
According to Schweizer’s book, Feinstein’s million dollar investment in Amyris was her only stock purchase of the entire year in 2009, further implicating that she used her knowledge of the upcoming government grant to make a timely investment in the biotech company.
The book does not disclose how much money the Feinsteins earned off of the investment, and the California Democrat has not publicly commented on the issue.
The Feinstein finding comes in the wake of a “60 Minutes” special that aired Sunday night, which exposed various members of Congress for engaging in insider trading.
