WASHINGTON (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Senator Thom Tillis is calling for an investigation into Representative Madison Cawthorn after a report that the congressman may have violated insider trading laws.
“Insider trading by a member of Congress is a serious betrayal of their oath, and Congressman Cawthorn owes North Carolinians an explanation,” Tillis (R-NC) said on Twitter Wednesday. “There needs to be a thorough and bipartisan inquiry into the matter by the House Ethics Committee.”
According to a report from the Washington Examiner, multiple watchdog groups said Cawthorn (R-NC) may have violated federal laws when he promoted a “pump-and-dump” cryptocurrency scheme.
Late last year, Cawthorn posed with the main investor behind the Let’s Go Brandon cryptocurrency, James Koutoulas.
In response to the photo, Cawthorn publicly said he owned LGBCoin cryptocurrency.
The following day, the cryptocurrency said it would sponsor NASCAR driver Brandon Brown, whose win at Talladega in 2021 kicked off the anti-Biden rallying cry “Let’s Go Brandon,” for the 2022 Xfinity Series season.
“If we do our job right, when you think of us, and you hear, ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’ you’ll think and feel, ‘Let’s Go America,’” Koutoulas said during the announcement.
LGBCoin’s value spiked by 75% following the sponsorship news, the Washington Examiner reported.
Watchdog groups reportedly told the Examiner that Cawthorn’s Instagram post suggested he may have had advanced knowledge of the deal with Brown and said that, combined with Cawthorn’s statement that he owns LGBCoin, “warrants an investigation from the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to see if the freshman congressman violated insider trading laws.
By the end of January 2022, the value of LGBCoin had dropped from $570 million to $0.
The Washington Examiner reported Koutoulas said that an “unidentified insiders that owned an outsize share of the coin dumped all their holdings at once,” leading to the coin’s market value to evaporate.
It is unclear if Cawthorn was one of those investors, but he has continued to promote the cryptocurrency on several occasions.
The congressman has remained in the headlines over the past several months.
On Tuesday, Cawthorn was cited for trying to bring a loaded gun through TSA at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, police said.
CMPD said Cawthorn admitted the firearm was his and he was cooperative with officers. He was issued a citation for possession of a dangerous weapon on city property, which is a City of Charlotte Ordinance.
Cawthorn has also been cited multiple times for various speeding violations. North Carolina Highway Patrol dashcam video released to QCN in April showed a traffic stop involving Cawthorn after he was pulled over in Cleveland County in March and charged with driving with a revoked license.
He has also taken heat after claims that people in Washington, D.C. invited him to an orgy and did cocaine in front of him.
The congressman is currently running for reelection in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional district.
A Super PAC tied to a leading Republican Senator Thom Tillis recently released a new ad attacking Cawthorn.
The ad from Results for NC, which is aligned with Sen. Thom Tillis, accuses Cawthorn of lying about fellow Republicans and getting accepted into the U.S. Naval Academy.