Jack Abramoff: Lawmakers, Congressional Aides Took Part In Insider Trading

Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff recently revealed that several lawmakers have bragged to him about insider stock trading.

Abramoff said in an interview with CNBC that as many as a dozen congressmen informed him of insider trading. Both the congressmen and their aides allegedly took part in stock trading based on foreknowledge of market-moving information on Capitol Hill, according to Abramoff.

Abramoff said he heard these confessions at Signatures, the exclusive restaurant he owned on Pennsylvania Avenue before a corruption scandal landed him in prison for three years. He said the lawmakers -- who he chose not to name -- earned anywhere from $2,000 to as much as "several hundred thousand dollars" based on insider knowledge.

"It was more, 'Look at me, I'm a real great stock trader,'" Abramoff told CNBC.

Because Abramoff never played the stock market himself, he said he wasn't fazed by the bragging.

"I was making far more money than they were, so I wasn't as impressed as perhaps they thought I'd be," he said.

Abramoff said it's "widely known" insider trading is a common occurrence in Washington. The former lobbyist has been making the rounds in recent days promoting his new book, Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist.

Comments

[Francisco Canales]

10:39 AM on 01/07/2012

The Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and the FDA are engage on criminal killing of cancer patients.
The US FDA (Food and Drug Administration), The Texas State Board of Medical Examiners and the Texas Attorney General conspiracy to destroy and jail, Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski; is the worse evidence of Government corruption that deprive the American people from obtain the best possible treatment for the cure of cancer. We as most Americans, do not become aware or do not learn what was going on, we don't realize that our Government, become corrupt criminals that conspire to protect corporations and organizations that maintain them in office. The killing of cancer patients continue and is getting worse because the main news media fell to inform the American people of the actions of collusion- conspiracy, that this corrupt government establishment practice, to control the people of this United states to protect and benefit their cronies .
Fellow Americans, please take action today. Stand for justice and all the cancer patients of the world. correct this miscarriage of justice
The Texas Medical Board vs. Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, will take place on April 11, 2012; Please join us in the fight by taking action'
To find out who represents you,
go to: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/ ------- http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
http://www.fda.gov------- http://www.burzynskimovie.com/

[Sylecious]

11:11 AM on 11/22/2011

Martha Stewart goes to prison for trading on insider information , but house and senate members can do it all day long? What? She must be pissed off!

[Sylecious]

11:02 PM on 11/21/2011

Can you imagine the talk a congressman has with his daughter or son before they go off to college. " you know son/ daughter you might want to consider a career in public service, oh, and if you do , you can make huge amounts of money in the stock market based on tips from insiders who owe you favors. Can you imagine , you will know before anyone else if a smaller company is about to be moved on in the fashion of a take-over, and you can tie up a few thousand dollars for a few days and make 25% profit in a few days and then when the new breaks to the ordinary suckers in the general public you will allready have bought the stock at a much lower price before the announcement of the acquisition comes out. And you can do trades like that over and over and over during your time in office. Ain't democracy great !"

[Schoolgirl666]

08:55 AM on 11/19/2011

Now we know how a Senator making $174,000 per year can become a millionaire while in office...We must stop them!!!

[Geral Sosbee]

09:39 AM on 11/18/2011

Re: Insider Trades:


Well, fbi smugly murmurs, "everyone's doing it".
Must now see why congress refuses to investigate my charges of insider trading in derivatives by the fbi:

http://ttu.academia.edu/geralsosbee

Now, the rest of the story:

fbi, military intelligence (James Wolf), police, UT chancellor, UT legal counsel all team up to create a fraudulent police report with patently false contents in order to find a way to illegally arrest this fbi whistleblower. See this and related links:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19a-updatefo.html

QUESTIONS! geral sosbee [phone]

One agency of government above all others must be destroyed:
the federal burro of investigation (fbi).

http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/forum/topics/americans-embrace-their



http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/oliverwendallhol.html

*Feinstein is one of the most treacherous traitors in congress.

*
http://barbarahartwellvscia.blogspot.com/2011/03/this-congress-of-usa-will-live-in.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BTW:


In today's fbi, one cannot always determine which agents (and operatives) are cold blooded murderers and torturers.For example:
People who knew H. Paul Rico (ex-fbi agent)"... recall him as a cop who dressed and talked like a gangster. Only much later would it become clear that it was not an act."

Hitman, Howie Carr, Tom Doherty Associates,LLC,175 Fifth Avenue, New York,NY 10010,2011, p.63.

http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/forum/topics/war-on-terror-2010

http://barbarahartwellvscia.blogspot.com/2011/10/courts-and-fbi-torture-maim-or-kill_01.html
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/hooverletter.html

[ReasonableViews]

02:01 PM on 11/17/2011

Just as long as they don't outlaw it before I can get there and take a turn at the trough. Seriously, it's amazing that we're now hearing defenses of something that ONLY congress is allowed to get away with. Why should Martha Stewart and Raj Rajaratnam go to jail for something that Spencer Bacchus is doing every day? http://bit.ly/rxf30l

[Hufffan]

05:22 PM on 11/12/2011

The office of Tom Delay was blatant and notorious for insider trading.
Fortunes were made from pharmaceutical legislation.

[filiusj]

12:18 PM on 11/12/2011

I guess he's the Tim McQueary of politics. You should be so proud Jack. Amazing how so many men think it is ok to screw over Americans for money.

[Countess]

12:18 PM on 11/12/2011

Jack Abramoff is someone we should be listening to because he is telling us how this corrupt system works. He makes it very clear that there are two levels of corruption one which is illegal which he admits to and the most pervasive and important corruption which is perfectly legal. For some reason we have never really wanted to face up to this overwhelming problem and have chosen to sweep it under the rug probably because both parties and the media establishment have no interest in discussing it.

[zenbamboo]

12:09 PM on 11/12/2011

This is common knowledge, its just that the media is too cozy with both parties to actually point this one out. He who writes the laws and regulations can easily predict who stands to gain and lose. Many legislators actively have businesses that benefit from legislation that they have worked on.

[Gestas]

12:05 PM on 11/12/2011

At lest Jack is willing to admit how wrong the things he was doing were.....Now what about his two best friends..Tom Delay and Grover Norquist...

[Eric4969]

11:22 AM on 11/12/2011

I remeber everyone Blasted Jose Consaco on Steroids in Major League Baseball and it turned out to be 100% True!!!!! Just saying these guys go in Some middle class They all Go OUT MILLIONIARES HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pottedferne]

11:03 AM on 11/12/2011

hope he has this info locked away to be revealed if anything "accidental" happens to him.......

[Nighthawlk]

10:58 AM on 11/12/2011

Saying is one thing but naming is more believable. From names the IRS and the Securities Exchange ( or what ever the dickens it’s call) can investigate. Whether or not they will fine anything or follow up on their findings or even prosecute is another thing.

[timiam]

10:39 AM on 11/12/2011

There should be a fund the size of the lottery for the biggest whistle blower of the year.
Whistle blowing should be encouraged and rewarded. The government wont be helping with this one.