Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C) may have broken insider trading laws with his social media posts pushing a cryptocurrency that is now at the center of a pump-and-dump cryptocurrency scheme.
Cawthorn praised the “Let’s Go Brandon” meme coin in an Instagram post on December 29 appearing alongside hedge fund manager James Koutoulas, who is the chief promoter of the cryptocurrency,
“LGB legends. … Tomorrow we go to the moon!” Cawthorn wrote on Instagram. He also admitted that he owned some of the crypto himself.
The next day, the NASCAR driver who inspired the anti-Biden chant, Brandon Brown announced that the cryptocurrency would be the main sponsor of his 2022 season causing the value of LGBCoin to surge by 75%.
Federal watchdog groups told the Washington Examiner that Cawthorn’s social media posts suggest that he may have had advance knowledge of the sponsorship agreement with Brown which could mean further legal troubles for the congressman.
“Having advance and nonpublic information that is then used to gain advantage in a financial market (including straight up commodities) is illegal, making my call for DOJ or SEC investigation still operative in this case,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the government affairs manager for Project on Government Oversight.
The ‘Lets Go Brandon’ cryptocurrency is at the center of a class-action lawsuit by investors who lost money after the coin crashed. They accused LGBCoin of operating as a pump-and-dump scheme by using celebrities like Cawthorn to help increase the value of the coin before they jumped ship.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C), who has endorsed one of Cawthorn’s primary opponent state Sen. Chuck Edwards, is calling for an insider trading investigation of Cawthorn.
“Insider trading by a member of Congress is a serious betrayal of their oath, and Congressman Cawthorn owes North Carolinians an explanation,” Tillis said Wednesday in a Tweet from his official account. “There needs to be a thorough and bipartisan inquiry into the matter by the House Ethics Committee.”
