The Latest: Price transfers business ownership to wife
Source: Associated Press
WEDNESDAY, FEB 8, 2017 11:45 AM EST
11:40 a.m.
Tom Price, President Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, has amended his government ethics agreement as the Senate prepares to debate and vote on his confirmation.
In the amended agreement released Wednesday, Price says he has transferred ownership interest in a business to his wife. A Senate aide says the company — Chattahoochee Associates LP — is involved with medical buildings. Price had previously said he would resign as managing partner but maintain a financial interest.
Price also reaffirmed that he will sell his stock in Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian company trying to develop a drug for multiple sclerosis. Democrats have criticized his purchase of the company’s stock at a discount. In the new agreement, Price corrected a previous reporting error that undervalued his stake.
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2017/02/08/the-latest-price-transfers-business-ownership-to-wife/
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Another "sweetheart deal" as it is referred to"
When tiny Australian biotech firm Innate Immunotherapeutics needed to raise money last summer, it didn’t issue stock on the open market. Instead, it offered a sweetheart deal to “sophisticated U.S. investors,” company documents show.
It sold nearly $1 million in discounted shares to two American congressmen sitting on House committees with the potential power to advance the company’s interests, according to company records and congressional filings. They paid 18 cents a share for a stake in a company that was rapidly escalating in value, rising to more than 90 cents as the company promoted an aggressive plan to sell to a major pharmaceutical company. Analysts said the stock price could go to $2.
One of the beneficiaries was Representative Tom Price, a Georgia Republican poised to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which regulates pharmaceuticals. Price told HHS ethics officials Thursday that if appointed, he will divest himself of the Australian stock as well as stock in about 40 other companies that could pose conflicts. He said he would sell within 90 days of appointment and abstain from any decision-making about companies in which he or his family has had an interest.
He has already seen about a 400 percent paper gain in his investment in Innate Immuno, stock trading records show.
https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/13/tom-price-innate-immunotherapeutics/
