Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is one of the most active traders in Congress. Since entering the House in 2017, he and his wife have reported hundreds of stock transactions across Big Tech, defense, energy, and healthcare.
Watchdog groups and business media often flag him as a “power user” of the congressional trading rules, praising his returns but questioning whether lawmakers should be allowed to trade at all. Gottheimer’s portfolio has sparked three kinds of headlines:
- Frequent, well-timed trades that sometimes outperform the market.
- Late filings that violate the 2012 STOCK Act’s 45-day disclosure rule.
- A broader debate about whether members of Congress exploit inside information, even if no regulator has accused him of classic insider trading.
This article examines Gottheimer’s background, the confirmed STOCK Act violations on record, summaries of his trading activity, media and watchdog coverage of his trades, his own statements, and whether he has faced any formal penalties or investigations regarding insider trading.
TL;DR
- Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) serves on House Financial Services Committee and Intelligence Committee
- Has made 3,300+ stock transactions since 2017, achieving 22.93% annual returns (vs. S&P 500’s ~10%)
- Sold Silicon Valley Bank stock on March 9, 2023 – one day before the bank collapsed
- Traded up to $104 million in defense contractor stocks in 2024 while on intelligence committees
- Violated STOCK Act by filing disclosure 9 months late (November 2021 trade reported August 2022)
- Penalty for STOCK Act violation: $200 fine (unclear if paid)
- No criminal charges filed, only confirmed violation is late disclosure filing
Who is Josh Gottheimer
Josh Gottheimer represents New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District and sits on some pretty powerful committees.
These include the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees banking and capital markets policy, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he is the ranking member of the National Security Agency/Cyber Subcommittee.
These positions put him in sensitive policy areas related to finance and national security, which in turn raises questions about whether his personal stock investments could intersect with his official work.
Suspicious Trading Patterns That Raise Eyebrows
While no criminal charges have been filed against Gottheimer for insider trading, several cases have emerged that ethics experts describe as particularly concerning. The following incidents are not confirmed insider trading violations, but they represent trading patterns that appear unusually well-timed given his access to sensitive information.
The Silicon Valley Bank Scandal
The scandal that really put Gottheimer on the insider trading radar happened in March 2023. Josh Gottheimer sold shares in Silicon Valley Bank on March 9, valued between $1,000 and $15,000, according to Quiver Quantitative’s analysis of public disclosures.
The bank failed the next day, causing a massive downward spiral in US banking stocks.
But wait, it gets worse. He was allowed to sell shares of Silicon Valley Bank the day before the bank collapsed, despite his position on the financial services committee giving him an insider track on issues at the bank.
Think about the timing here. Gottheimer sits on the House Financial Services Committee, the exact committee that oversees banking regulations. He would have had access to information about the banking sector’s health that regular investors could only dream of.
And it wasn’t just SVB. During the same banking crisis, he also sold Charles Schwab stock and bought Morgan Stanley shares.
Perfect timing, right?
Defense Contractor Trading
In 2024, he traded up to $104 million in defense contractor stocks through a third-party firm, trading more stocks of Pentagon contractors than any other member of Congress.
The trades involved massive positions in companies such as Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, and IBM, all major defense contractors.
Gottheimer simultaneously holds positions on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the National Security subcommittee in the Committee on Financial Services.
The guy who gets classified briefings about national security and defense spending is also the biggest trader of defense stocks in Congress.
That’s not suspicious at all.
His Trading Performance Is Suspicious
Here’s what really gets people fired up. The strategy has returned 22.93% CAGR since inception. That’s a 22.93% compound annual growth rate. For context, the S&P 500 averages around 10% annually over the long term. So Gottheimer (or his “third-party” advisor) is basically doubling the market’s performance.
Since 2020-01-06, Josh Gottheimer has filed well over 100 reports, with a total of 3,300 – 3,400 transactions (the tally rises every week).
That’s an absolutely insane amount of trading activity for someone who claims he has “no idea” what his advisor is doing.
Confirmed STOCK Act violations
Investigations show that Josh Gottheimer violated the STOCK Act by submitting a disclosure long after the 45-day deadline.
Records indicate that he and his wife moved up to $15,000 of Independent Bank Corporation stock in November 2021, yet Congress didn’t receive the report until August 2022. Because trades above $1,000 must be reported within 45 days, the delay itself constitutes a violation of the law.
Gottheimer’s office later said the Independent Bank move was “an exchange” and emphasized that an outside adviser manages his portfolio. Even so, the timing still breached statutory requirements.
At this point, the late 2021 filing is the only STOCK Act violation publicly linked to Gottheimer. Whether the trade was a buy, sale, or transfer is secondary; what matters is that it was reported months past the deadline.
Gottheimer’s Insider Trading Defense: “I Have No Idea What They Do”
So what does Gottheimer say about all this? His go-to defense is pretty standard: “I literally have no idea what they do,” he stated in a 2022 CNBC interview about his third-party financial advisor.
His team has stated that, “Prior to taking office, in a February 2022 press release, Josh turned over management of his portfolio to a third party and only receives statements of prior transactions.”
Here’s the problem with that defense: If he truly has no control over their trades, how are they consistently beating the market by such massive margins? Either his advisor is the greatest stock picker in history, or there’s something else going on.
In the same statement, Gottheimer said he did not believe members of Congress should trade individual securities.
He announced that he was taking the extra step of setting up a blind trust for any remaining investments and said he was co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation (the “TRUST in Congress Act”) that would require all members to use blind trusts.
In public comments, Gottheimer has stressed his support for reforms. He has been a cosponsor of proposals to ban members’ stock trading or require blind trusts.
Along with Rep. Abigail Spanberger, he publicly backed her legislation that would bar members and their spouses from owning individual stocks, and he insisted on even broader language to cover judges and all federal officials.
Has Gottheimer Faced Any Insider Trading Charges or Penalties?
No, Gottheimer has not been charged with any insider trading violations. There is no record of SEC, DOJ, or House ethics investigations accusing him of insider trading. The only confirmed issue is disclosure lateness – a minor STOCK Act infraction for his late filing of some of his trades.
Under the STOCK Act, the penalty for missing a disclosure deadline is a $200 late fee for first-time offenders. House rules set this as the standard fine, though the Ethics Committee may waive it.
Some lawmakers mentioned in similar investigations have paid the penalty; for example, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, who was cited in the same 2022 story, has since paid the $200 penalty for her late filing.
In Gottheimer’s case, neither his office nor the House has publicized any fine or fee payment. Beyond requiring the late report to be filed, the STOCK Act has imposed no additional known sanctions.
Either way, Gottheimer’s pattern of trades raises every red flag in the book. The timing, the volume, the committees he sits on, the extraordinary performance – it all adds up to something that smells like insider trading.
Whether anything will come of it legally remains to be seen, but this represents exactly the kind of behavior that destroys public trust in democratic institutions.
The solution is simple. Members of Congress should either put their assets in a true blind trust or be banned from trading individual stocks entirely. Until that happens, cases like Gottheimer’s will keep making regular investors wonder if the game is rigged against them.
And honestly? Based on what’s been revealed here, it probably is.