Did NC politicians participate in “Insider Trading”?

Yesterday Chad Adams posted on allegations of insider trading concerning Law Enforcement Associates (LEA) by State Senator Tony Rand (D-Cumberland).

Among the allegations “…approximately 50 North Carolina Politicians, including former and present governors, who were personal friends of both Rand, and Carrington, its former owner. The list showed that those persons had purchased large amounts of LEA stock in 2004 and 2005.” Carrington refers to former State Senator John Carrington (R-Wake) who served with Rand in the state senate until 2005.

While there is no proof that any of the claims are true it is interesting to note that The News & Observer published a story confirming that Gov. Bev Perdue (D) and former Gov. Mike Easley (D) both purchased stock in LEA. Easley and Rand have had what appears to be a close relationship over the years including an interesting real estate deal uncovered by Carolina Journal’s Don Carrington.

Looking at the history of LEA as a stock shows that it has had a very low volume of trades except for a brief period in the 2004 – 2005 time period. Given that not many people trade the stock and it can be considered a penny stock, it will be interesting to see if a number of politicians with connections to Rand turn out to have invested in this rather obscure stock.