Nancy Pelosi’s Husband Sold $500K in Visa Stock Ahead of Justice Department Antitrust Lawsuit

Nancy Pelosi’s husband sold more than $500,000 worth of Visa stock, public documents show — less than three months before the credit card giant was hit with federal antitrust charges.

Visa was sued Tuesday for allegedly illegally monopolizing the debit card market, the culmination of a years-long investigation by the Justice Department’s antitrust unit.

Court documents show that Visa allegedly used its dominant market position to penalize customers and merchants who used competing payment processors.

Antitrust officials also say Visa forces financial technology companies to work with it, threatening fines for those who fail to do so.

The Post has reached out to Visa for comment.

Meanwhile, Christopher Josephs, a tech entrepreneur who runs the “Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker” on X, on July 3 posted a screenshot of congressional documents that showed the former House Speaker’s husband, Paul Pelosi, sold 2,000 shares of Visa worth between $500,000 and $1 million.

The disclosure form shows Pelosi’s transaction listed as “SP,” or spouse — referring to her husband Paul, a San Francisco-based equity and real estate investor.

At the time Paul Pelosi sold Visa stock, there was no public indication that an antitrust lawsuit would soon be filed against the company.

Visa shares fell 5% late Tuesday.

“Speaker Pelosi does not own any shares and has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,” a spokesman for the congresswoman told The Post.

But critics say Nancy Pelosi’s position in Washington gives her potential access to non-public information that could be important to markets.

“At various turning points in history, members of our government have engaged in trading at moments when their conflicts of interest were questioned,” Ron Geffner, a former enforcement lawyer at the Securities and Exchange Commission, told The Post.

Geffner said other factors must be taken into account to assess whether the impression of impropriety is correct.

“Before the public judges Pelosi unfairly, it is important to determine who made the transaction on her behalf and whether it was part of a broader shift in her portfolio,” Geffner added.

The July 3 disclosure also revealed that Paul Pelosi sold 2,500 shares of Tesla. He also bought shares of Nvidia and Broadcom.

Nancy Pelosi, who remains a key figure in the Democratic Party despite resigning as House speaker early last year, has a nine-figure net worth thanks to her and her husband’s extensive portfolio of stocks and investments.

The San Francisco Democrat has long opposed calls by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to ban lawmakers and their spouses from trading stocks because of the conflict of interest it poses.

In 2021, Visa disclosed in regulatory filings that the Justice Department’s antitrust unit had requested information about potential violations of antitrust rules, the Financial Times reported.

Federal antitrust investigators are reportedly looking into Visa’s ties to companies including Square, Stripe and PayPal.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Visa allegedly offered these companies financial incentives to prevent them from using competing payment processors.

The Department of Justice reportedly wanted to investigate whether Visa forced PayPal to induce customers to make payments using cards with the Visa logo.

Visa also allegedly offered lower fees and other incentives to Square’s subsidiary, Cash App, if it encouraged customers to transact through Visa-branded services.

Visa said it had been asked to provide information about the company’s U.S. debit card business.

“We believe Visa’s U.S. debit card practices are in compliance with applicable regulations,” the company said at the time.

Last year, Visa said federal prosecutors were seeking even more documents as part of the same investigation.

The San Francisco-based company said at the time that it was cooperating with the investigation.