Pelosi’s Alleged Insider Trading Sparks Ethics Scandal

By Sandy Fitzgerald | Saturday, 08 November 2025 02:13 PM EST

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who announced her retirement from the House this week, and her husband Paul have accumulated a multimillion-dollar fortune over decades. Their early stock holdings grew to more than $130 million over 37 years, yielding nearly 17,000%, according to a report. Republican critics argue this highlights the need for stricter congressional ethics laws.

“Nancy Pelosi’s true legacy is becoming the most successful insider trader in American history,” said RNC spokesperson Kiersten Pels. “If anyone else had turned $785,000 into $133.7 million with better returns than Warren Buffett, they’d be retiring behind bars.”

When Pelosi, 85, entered Congress in 1987, she and her husband reported stock holdings between $610,000 and $785,000, including investments in companies like Citibank. Now, their portfolio is valued at $133.7 million, with a net worth estimated at nearly $280 million. This growth outpaced the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 2,300% rise and averaged an annual return of 14.5%, surpassing major indexes like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

In 2024 alone, their investments gained 54%, far exceeding the S&P 500’s 25% rise, according to Bloomberg. Pelosi’s latest financial disclosure lists holdings in Apple, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks, Salesforce, and Netflix, with Apple alone valued between $25 million and $50 million.

Dan Weiskopf, a portfolio manager of the congressional-tracking ETF NANC, described Pelosi’s trading strategy as “high conviction and aggressive,” often involving options for leverage. “You only do that when you have confidence,” he said. “We don’t see her panic or flip-flop on positions.”

The couple also owns real estate, including a Napa Valley winery worth $25 million, a San Francisco restaurant, commercial properties, and a political data firm. They reside in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights and Washington’s Georgetown.

Pelosi’s exit coincides with ongoing debates to ban lawmakers and their spouses from trading individual stocks, a measure critics say would prevent profiting on nonpublic information. Earlier versions of the bill were nicknamed after Pelosi, and ETFs have tracked her trades.

Paul Pelosi, a venture capitalist, has made millions through stock and option trades involving 20 companies. A notable 2023 trade involved $2.4 million in call options on NVIDIA, generating over $7 million in paper profits before a Senate vote on semiconductor manufacturing funding.

Lawmakers criticizing the purchase raised concerns about conflicts of interest. Pelosi denied her husband used nonpublic information. Weiskopf stated, “When you’re supposed to be called an honorable member of Congress, maybe you should look yourself in the mirror and say, I want to do the right thing.”

Sandy Fitzgerald has over three decades in journalism, covering news, media, and politics for Newsmax.