California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna, who backs banning lawmakers from trading stocks, had no knowledge of the Nvidia scandal and does not direct his family’s trades, his office says.
The Ritu Ahuja 1994 Trust, listed as an asset of the spouse of Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who represents the 17th Congressional District, sold Nvidia stock on Oct. 7, the day after the chipmaker’s shares hit an all-time high and three weeks before news broke of CEO Jensen Huang’s relationship with a suspected Chinese spy, according to a House financial disclosure and news reports.
Khanna has pushed to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks. “Members of Congress were elected to serve the public, not their portfolios,” his campaign website says, the California Post reported.
A Khanna spokesperson told the Post that the sale had nothing to do with inside information. “Neither Rep. Khanna nor anyone on his staff received any briefing on Megaspeed, Jensen, or any counterintelligence risks tied to Nvidia,” the spokesperson wrote. “He had zero knowledge of this incident until the New York Times report. Khanna does not trade stocks and provided zero direction or input into any trades,” the spokesperson said.
WHAT THE FILING SHOWS
The periodic transaction report, received by the House Legislative Resource Center on Nov. 5, lists a partial sale of Nvidia common stock by the Ritu Ahuja 1994 Trust on Oct. 7, in the $1,001 to $15,000 range. Ritu Ahuja is Khanna’s wife. The trust sold more than a dozen other stocks that day, including Walmart, Adobe and Boston Scientific, the filing shows.
The trust also sold Nvidia shares on Sept. 4, according to disclosures tracked by Capitol Trades, the Post reported. Disclosures also show Nvidia purchases by the family from June through September, the Post reported.
Khanna has said the family’s holdings sit in a trust set up by his wife’s parents before the couple married, and that an independent trustee manages it. “Neither my wife nor I direct a trade,” Khanna wrote in July, according to the Post.
THE NVIDIA SCANDAL
The New York Times reported in late October that U.S. officials believed Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, who had a close relationship with Jensen Huang, was a Chinese spy, according to a TechCrunch timeline. Jensen Huang later admitted to an extramarital affair and stepped down as CEO this week after the Times reported a second affair with an Nvidia executive.
Nvidia shares have fallen about 30% since the October sale, the Post reported.
Khanna is the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, a post he took in January.
His spokesperson said Khanna wants an investigation into what the administration knew about Huang’s ties to China. “Khanna believes there needs to be an investigation into what the administration knew about Jensen and any of Jensen’s ties to China that could have compromised national security,” the spokesperson told the Post.
Khanna’s household was not the only one in Congress to sell Nvidia before the plunge. The wife of Rep. Pete Sessions sold Nvidia shares Oct. 2, the wife of Rep. Dan Meuser sold shares Sept. 25, and Rep. Gil Cisneros, a California Democrat, reported a sale Oct. 20, according to Quantellect data cited by the Post.
