GOV. HOWARD DEAN SOLD STOCKS AFTER GETTING INSIDE INFO
By DEBORAH ORIN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 5, 2004 -- DES MOINES, Iowa-Howard Dean acknowledged yesterday that he sold $15,000 in stock in five Vermont banks in 1991 after getting "inside information" from a state banking regulator soon after he became Vermont governor.
Dean yesterday portrayed the sale as a bid to avoid a conflict of interest - not an attempt to profit from inside information.
"It became clear to me that information I might receive in the future as governor could present a possible conflict of interest," Dean said in a statement.
But Dean, as governor, held onto investments in IBM worth $39,000 as of last May, even though it has a large plant in Vermont, The Wall Street Journal reports today.
Dean also held onto stock in the insurance giant AIG, worth $69,000 as of last May, despite state regulation of insurance, the Journal adds.
He first revealed the stock sale in a 1994 interview, saying the state regulator "came over one day and said, 'Here's the inside report on all the banks,' and I went, 'Yikes!' "
But Dean didn't specify what the inside information was. A spokesman told the Journal that the regulator's report was "innocuous" but said Dean was shocked to realize he got inside information.
The Associated Press reported bank stocks were declining in Vermont when Dean sold, but a former Vermont banking regulator, Elizabeth Costler told the Journal that bank stocks were actually looking up and "it wasn't to his economic advantage to sell."
Dean, whose net worth is listed at $4.2 million, is the son of a prominent Wall Street player, and regularly traded stocks - sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single year- all through the 1990s, according to the Journal.
The bank-stock sale could raise new questions about Dean's decision to seal many of his records as Vermont governor.
A Dean spokesman said that in a few days, the candidate will go through his tax records to see if he can determine which bank stocks he owns.
By DEBORAH ORIN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 5, 2004 -- DES MOINES, Iowa-Howard Dean acknowledged yesterday that he sold $15,000 in stock in five Vermont banks in 1991 after getting "inside information" from a state banking regulator soon after he became Vermont governor.
Dean yesterday portrayed the sale as a bid to avoid a conflict of interest - not an attempt to profit from inside information.
"It became clear to me that information I might receive in the future as governor could present a possible conflict of interest," Dean said in a statement.
But Dean, as governor, held onto investments in IBM worth $39,000 as of last May, even though it has a large plant in Vermont, The Wall Street Journal reports today.
Dean also held onto stock in the insurance giant AIG, worth $69,000 as of last May, despite state regulation of insurance, the Journal adds.
He first revealed the stock sale in a 1994 interview, saying the state regulator "came over one day and said, 'Here's the inside report on all the banks,' and I went, 'Yikes!' "
But Dean didn't specify what the inside information was. A spokesman told the Journal that the regulator's report was "innocuous" but said Dean was shocked to realize he got inside information.
The Associated Press reported bank stocks were declining in Vermont when Dean sold, but a former Vermont banking regulator, Elizabeth Costler told the Journal that bank stocks were actually looking up and "it wasn't to his economic advantage to sell."
Dean, whose net worth is listed at $4.2 million, is the son of a prominent Wall Street player, and regularly traded stocks - sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single year- all through the 1990s, according to the Journal.
The bank-stock sale could raise new questions about Dean's decision to seal many of his records as Vermont governor.
A Dean spokesman said that in a few days, the candidate will go through his tax records to see if he can determine which bank stocks he owns.
