In case you missed it, Heartland Signal reported on California banker and mega-millionaire Eric Hovde’s big gains from “meme stocks” in his latest personal finance disclosure despite having called them “fundamentally busted” back in 2021. According to the disclosure, Hovde made capital gains between $202,503 and $2,005,000 from GameStop and between $368,208 and $3,156,000 from AMC – underscoring that Hovde would be one of the richest members of the Senate if he were elected.
“This latest hypocritical stunt from California millionaire Eric Hovde reminds Wisconsin voters who he really is – a shady businessman who is willing to lie in order to profit big. It’s no secret that Hovde sees this Senate seat as another opportunity to line his own pockets and get even richer at the expense of Wisconsinites,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Nico Delgado.
Heartland Signal: Eric Hovde profited from so-called ‘meme stocks’ despite decrying them
The Wisconsin Senate hopeful raked in large sums of cash from investments he previously described as an example of “our broken capital markets.”
Eric Hovde, the GOP’s candidate for one of Wisconsin’s Senate seats, appears to have profited off of so-called “meme stocks” despite having publicly derided their functionality.
In early 2021, firms like GameStop and AMC Theaters saw their stock values artificially inflated after certain corners of social media (like the subreddit r/wallstreetbets) encouraged individuals to invest in the floundering companies that were favorites of certain hedge funds for short selling. Along with making smaller investors millions of dollars, analysts also saw the short squeezing as a way to get back at large hedge funds that manipulate the market with short selling.
“For all those people playing in the options market now the meme stocks we’ve all heard about the meme stocks started with GameStop. And AMC, why do I show you this, because this is probably one of the best examples of how broken our capital markets and equity markets are. These are two companies that are fundamentally busted,” Hovde said at an economic forum in 2021.
However, according to a US Senate Personal Financial Disclosure, Hovde reported capital gains between $202,503 and $2,005,000 from his GameStop holdings and between $368,208 and $3,156,000 from his AMC holdings.
Such wheeling and dealing shouldn’t be surprising. Hovde’s financial reports indicate his bank, Sunwest Bank, is entangled with a variety of shady foreign investors and governments. For instance, in 2006 Hovde acquired a $9.6 million stake in the Dutch bank ABN Amro. Amro was later fined $500 million for crafting fraudulent documents that would hide their transactions with sanctioned countries like Cuba, Libya and Iran.
Published: Jul 29, 2024 | Last Modified: Jul 30, 2024