President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order affirming technology giant Oracle would play a leading — and potentially lucrative — role in TikTok’s pending U.S. spinoff from Chinese company ByteDance.
Just days before that, a Democratic congressman from Louisiana was busy buying up shares of Oracle, according to a congressional financial disclosure reviewed by NOTUS.
Rep. Cleo Fields purchased between $80,000 and $200,000 worth of Oracle shares across three different trades — on Sept. 17, 18 and 23, the disclosure document indicates. (Lawmakers are only required to disclose the values of stock trades in broad ranges.) News of Oracle’s participation in the TikTok deal first broke on Sept. 22.
Fields is a member of the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, which has jurisdiction over laws and government programs affecting financial markets and the securities industry. He also serves on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
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The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act, prohibits members of Congress from using nonpublic information to inform personal financial decisions.
It is unclear what Fields knew about Oracle’s participation in the TikTok deal — if he knew anything — or whether Fields initiated the Oracle stock purchases himself or had a financial adviser make the purchases on his behalf.
Fields’ congressional office acknowledged NOTUS’ requests for comment but did not otherwise respond.
In July, after Fields went on a June stock-purchasing spree worth between $3.56 million and $11.07 million, Fields’ office told OpenSecrets that the congressman “has complied with all rules outlined by the House of Representatives.” Fields represents a congressional district that stretches from Shreveport to Baton Rouge.
Since Fields made his Oracle stock purchases in September, share prices have dipped slightly but were up nearly 3% on Wednesday.
Government watchdogs expressed skepticism.
“The fact that Rep. Fields is a member of the Financial Services Committee means he, of all members of Congress, should know better,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, director of government affairs for the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight. “We don’t know for certain if the congressman was acting on any insider information but the sequence of events sure looks fishy … This kind of activity is exactly why the American public has dismally low approval for and trust in Congress.”
Congress is actively considering whether to bar lawmakers from buying and selling individual stocks, with an unlikely coalition of far-right Republicans and far-left Democrats coalescing to support a trading prohibition.
They’re motivated, in part, by dozens of members of Congress — including several in the past two months — who have violated the STOCK Act’s disclosure provisions. Numerous others regularly trade the stocks of government contractors, including defense firms.
“If people think, or even suspect, that they have a conflict, that is just as bad as actually having a conflict,” said Morris Pearl, chair of Patriotic Millionaires, a coalition of wealthy Americans who advocate against the concentration of wealth and power. “Ensuring that all politicians are acting in our country’s best interest, not their own financial interest, is important.”
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