The Associated Press State Local Wire
June 22, 2000, Thursday, BC cycle
8:39 PM Eastern Time
HEADLINE: Lazio: SEC has launched informal probe of my stock
trades
BYLINE: By MARC HUMBERT, AP Political Writer
DATELINE: ALBANY, N.Y.
Blasting the Clinton administration, U.S. Senate candidate
Rick Lazio said Thursday the Securities and Exchange Commission
has launched an "informal investigation" into his stock option
trading.
The congressman from Long Island is running for the Senate in New
York against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Lazio has denied any
wrongdoing in connection with his stock dealings.
In a statement, Lazio said he had "received a request from the
staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission that we provide
them with copies of certain account statements and trading
records.
"I intend to provide all information requested as well as answer
any questions that the staff may have," Lazio added.
While Lazio talked cooperation, his campaign staff went on the
attack.
"The Clinton administration has a long history of abusing federal
authority and using government bureaucracies to attack their
political opponents," Lazio campaign manager Bill Dal Col said in
a statement. "Today, they reached a new low."
There was no immediate comment from the SEC.
Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said, "Desperate
candidates make desperate charges."
On Monday, state Comptroller H. Carl McCall, a Clinton supporter,
said he had written to SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. asking for
an investigation of Lazio's stock option trading.
McCall, the sole trustee of New York's more than $127 billion
public pension fund, called for the probe after it came out that
Lazio scored a nearly 600 percent profit trading on options for
stock in a company headed by political supporters.
Lazio campaign spokesman Dan McLagan said that on Thursday
members of the news media were told about the SEC's informal
investigation by federal officials.
Also Thursday, independent counsel Robert Ray said he had found
substantial evidence of involvement on the part of the first lady
in the White House travel office firings, but insufficient
evidence to indict her on perjury charges.
"The fact that a bogus investigation, launched at the behest of a
Hillary Clinton supporter, carried out and leaked to the media by
a federal government agency, occurred on the day that substantial
evidence about her involvement in the 'Travelgate' scandal began
to come out, does not pass the political sniff test," Dal Col
said.
"The fact that federal employees apparently leaked word of this
investigation, thus committing a felony and risking their very
freedom, speaks volumes of how far Hillary Clinton will go to
further her political career," Dal Col added.
Statements of support, and outrage, came quickly from Lazio
supporters.
"It's more than outrageous, it's borderline illegal," Rep. Thomas
Reynolds, a western New York Republican, said.
"For eight years, We've suffered through scandal after scandal in
the Clinton-Gore administration and now Mrs. Clinton is bringing
her dirty laundry and Arkansas tactics to New York," said state
GOP Chairman William Powers.
Records show that Lazio spent about $2,300 in early August 1997
for options on stock of Quick Reilly, a brokerage firm. On
Sept. 17, 1997, the firm was bought by the Fleet Financial Group.
Lazio sold his stock options that same day for almost $16,000.
Peter Quick and Christopher C. Quick, former senior executives of
Quick Reilly, who along with other company executives have
donated at least $35,000 to Lazio's campaigns since 1995, said
they had never discussed the company's stock with Lazio. Lazio
also denied any insider knowledge.
The first lady has also faced questions about her financial
investments.
She turned a $1,000 investment in the cattle futures market into
nearly $100,000 during a nine-month period in 1978 and 1979, when
her husband was attorney general and then governor of Arkansas.
She denied any wrongdoing in those transactions. She was assisted
in her trades by an executive of Tyson Foods, which had extensive
business before Arkansas state regulators.
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