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By: Nate Morris, senior editor
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, just three short days after pushing to approve President Trump’s record request for three-quarters of a trillion dollars in defense budget spending, Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe reportedly purchased up to $100,000 in stock with Raytheon – a defense contracting company.
The purchase, which was dumped on Wednesday after the online newspaper The Daily Beast reported on the story, has prompted ethics concerns and calls into question Inhofe’s personal financial ties as he chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Inhofe’s office stated that the senator was unaware of the six-figure stock purchase and that all of his stock trades are handled by a third-party advisor.
A letter sent from Inhofe on December 12th instructed his financial advisor, Keith Goddard of Capital Advisors, Inc., to “no longer purchase defense or aerospace companies as a part of my financial holdings.”
However, this is not the first time that the Senator has profited off of companies related directly to his work in the legislature. In August, The Daily Beast reports, Inhofe sold holdings with defense contracting company Fluor.
Likewise, from 2015 to 2017, as Inhofe was the chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, he owned stakes in Continental Resources and Newfield Expansion; energy companies whose daily operations were directly affected by the legislation passing through the senator’s committee. During this time, Inhofe famously appeared on the Senate floor while holding a snowball, claiming that climate change was a hoax.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in 2015 Senator Inhofe’s overall net worth was estimated at $8.25 million and has invested more than $2.6 million in the defense and energy industries since 2006.
Inhofe is up for re-election to the United States Senate in 2020. The 84-year-old legislator has yet to announce if he will seek a sixth term.
Nate Morris is the senior editor of the Black Wall Street Times. Nate was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area and moved to Tulsa in 2012 after graduating from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. He received his Master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in 2015. Nate is a Teach for America alumnus and has worked in schools throughout the Tulsa area. He is an advocate for educational equity as well as racial and social justice throughout Tulsa and the nation as a whole.