On Jan. 31, Burr received nonpublic information from a source whose name is redacted in the FBI documents. That same day, Burr put in orders to sell nearly $110,000 in stock from his and his wife’s brokerage accounts. On Feb. 12, Burr ordered the purchase of approximately $1.2 million of Treasury securities, using 76% of the total holdings in Burr and his wife’s joint account.
“Investors often purchase U.S. Treasury funds to hedge against a potential market downturn,” the FBI special agent, Brandon Merriman, notes. He also noted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high of 29,551.42 on Feb. 12.
Bolding mine, because those two points of information clearly define insider trading. And Burr was up to his elbows in it:
We’ve been in a pandemic for a full two years. Life, in some sense, seems to be returning to some sense of “normal”. People are eating at restaurants. Schools are open. People are out shopping or going to movie theaters. The economy is rebounding.
But, if you look just below the paper-thin surface, everything is far from “normal”.
At a time of unprecedented challenges, including widespread threats to voting rights, devastating impacts of climate change, and continued health risks from a global pandemic, the responsibility of elected officials is to address the most pressing problems at hand.
Building on a previous op-ed I shared, we MUST bolster community pharmacies in NC. They are on the frontlines of vaccine distribution and they are under attack from corporate interests.
Despite the difficulties that COVID-19 brought to North Carolina, our local hospitals rose to the challenge to help those in need, and save countless lives. Whether patients were treated for coronavirus or a routine medical need, local hospitals continued to provide quality care.
The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally affected every single North Carolinian, whether through the loss of a loved one, jobs disappearing, or getting sick themselves. The health and well-being of medical professionals in our community have also taken a significant toll, yet their struggle has gone unnoticed as they cared for patients on the frontlines at the height of the pandemic.
Our country is in the middle of the worst public health crisis in American history, and despite the approval of multiple COVID-19 vaccines, the Trump administration's failure to effectively distribute the vaccine far and wide has undermined the response to the pandemic, and left North Carolinians vulnerable to the virus.
Over the last seven months, we have seen an alarming amount of misinformation spread online and worst by our elected officials as we battle with the coronavirus pandemic. Online, we see conspiracy videos like Plandemic. The original post received millions of views and was shared over 140,000 times. In total, it is estimated that the video through various outlets and reposts received over eight million views. The Plandemic is a misleading short film full of schemes about people profiting from the virus and misinformation about how individuals can protect themselves.
The worst of times require the best from our leaders. Tragedy begets fear, and it is in these times of tragedy that we expect the most from those that we elect. Moments like this test the moral foundation of our leaders, laying bare their best (and worst) intentions. Throughout both the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, the responsibility of charting our nation’s path to action has largely fallen on individual state leaders, including state attorneys general.
The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, especially in North Carolina, and I have seen the devastation firsthand. I am a proud nurse with the honor of serving patients in North Carolina. Throughout the past few months, nurses and healthcare providers across the state have been recognized for the work we are doing on the frontlines. I am grateful for the outpouring of love and support I have received personally and from so many who have donated to my hospital.
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