WASHINGTON, DC – Last week, Mikie Sherrill made an outlandish claim that Jack Ciattarelli profited from Big Pharma when his book publishing company published (not wrote) books for the industry.
She said Jack Ciattarelli ‘killed tens of thousands of people’ through his publishing deal.
With that same logic, it can now be said that Mikie Sherrill also contributed to the opioid deaths of millions of Americans as she traded pharmaceutical stocks in her portfolio while serving in Congress.
Since entering Congress in 2019, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) has moved away from trading individual stocks after early concerns about potential conflicts of interest tied to her committee assignments.
Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, of couse, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, reported 170 stock trades during her first year in office, according to federal disclosures.
Those trades included companies with direct ties to the defense industry, prompting ethics questions later highlighted in a 2022 New York Times investigation.
The report identified a dozen potential conflicts involving trades in defense contractors such as General Dynamics, Airbus, Honeywell, and Raytheon while she was serving on the committee overseeing military policy and procurement.
In early 2020, Sherrill and her husband began selling off individual holdings across multiple sectors.
Exit from individual stocks
Disclosures from February 2020 show the couple liquidated shares in several major corporations, including Apple, Amazon, Facebook (now Meta), Alphabet, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and UBS.
Her UBS portfolio traded heavily in big pharma stocks, leaving blood on the hands of the Virginia-born Democrat.
By the end of that year, the family’s portfolio consisted almost entirely of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which bundle multiple securities and are commonly used by public officials to limit conflicts of interest.
UBS compensation drives wealth gains
Sherrill’s family wealth has increased substantially since her election, largely due to her husband’s compensation as an executive at UBS.
Since 2020, the only individual stock the couple has traded has been UBS shares, which are part of his employment-based equity awards and are periodically sold.
UBS Group AG, through its various investment divisions such as Asset Management and Investment Bank, maintains a broad portfolio that includes exposure to the pharmaceutical industry among many other sectors. While UBS itself does not directly invest in pharmaceutical companies through its own common stock, it manages multiple funds that do. The company’s asset management services cover a wide range of industries, including healthcare, which encompasses pharmaceuticals.
UBS Group AG’s core business centers on managing investments for clients through vehicles such as mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity funds. These funds collectively hold shares in numerous companies, including those in the pharmaceutical sector. For instance, UBS’s asset management division has held shares in Luye Pharma Group Ltd., illustrating its indirect involvement in the pharmaceutical market through managed investment holdings.
Disclosure violation and fine
In 2021, Sherrill was fined $400 for failing to file timely reports on several of her husband’s stock sales, a violation of the federal Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.
She attributed the lapse to an “oversight” and promptly paid the penalty.
The New Jersey congresswoman now holds her investments in diversified ETFs to avoid future conflicts as she continues to serve in Congress.