This article was updated on May 3, 2026
The connection between the head of the Small Business Administration and major Trump donor Kelly Loeffler, whose husband, Jeff Sprecher, is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, warrants an investigation for blatant conflicts of interest.
A Bloomberg report on May 3, 2026, found that Loeffler, as well as special envoy Steve Witkoff and 10 other Trump administration officials, held positions in SpaceX or xAI stock valued at between $9.9 million and $43.8 million.
Loeffler’s husband, Sprecher, is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and the CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
Donald Trump has cherry-picked the best white-collar criminals for his Cabinet. In both of Trump’s terms, the whole Cabinet was for sale.
In Trump’s first term, there was no shortage of couples or families meeting this low bar of acceptance—Mitch McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao; the entire Trump family; Betsy DeVos and her brother, Eric Price, head of Blackwater; Loeffler and her husband, who were major Trump donors.
Trump’s second presidential term is the most corrupt in American history, yet the media and average voters cannot even track the insider deals from his wealthy contributors that are being made daily.
And because the Trump regime is based on corruption, insider trading from billionaires continues unchallenged by a powerless, feckless Congress and the financial media.
It may surprise many in the investment community that before ICE took over the NYSE, the Big Board had a pristine reputation as an institution that did not tolerate even a hint of corruption. As shown in this story on this site, since its formation in 1794, no chairman of the NYSE has even been accused of insider trading, but the toothless ICE-NYSE board of directors, most of whom were appointed by Sprecher, get their six-digit annual paychecks and look at their laps when faced with corruption and ethically messy cases. They would never challenge a conflict-of-interest case involving their chairman’s wife.
The Loeffler-Sprecher Model of Corruption
Trump chose Loeffler to lead the Small Business Administration in February 2025. Earlier, Trump considered her for the position of Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, but withdrew her from consideration when he discovered she didn’t know much about farm management, driving a tractor, crop management, or feeding cattle.
But we do know that she and her husband, Sprecher, are good at skirting the rules on insider trading. Kelly was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Trump scheme to steal votes in Georgia while participating in a fake elector scheme for the 2020 election.
Loeffler, a short-term Senator from Georgia, got her “get-out-of-jail-free ” card after the special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, recommended charges against her, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and former GOP Sens. David Perdue, according to the special counsel grand jury report released Sept. 8, 2023. But Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did not charge the lawmakers when she returned an indictment last month against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants in that sprawling vote-fixing racketeering case. That case was later dropped by Willis.
Loeffler is married to billionaire Jeff Sprecher, who is not an elected official and was never convicted of criminal activity. Still, he is a public figure as CEO and chairman of ICE, a publicly held company, and as NYSE chairman. The NYSE is a self-regulatory organization (a DSRO) charged with self-policing trading on the exchange and trading of all its member firms, publicly traded listed companies, and members. As such, it purports to be the pinnacle of self-regulation and transparency, and the epitome of free-market capitalism.
Then-Senator Loeffler was involved in an insider trading scandal in 2020. At that time, Loeffler was accused of trading on information she received during a confidential briefing about the impact of COVID-19. She and her financial advisors then sold stocks that the virus would hurt. After an investigation, Loeffler and Sprecher were not charged in the insider trading case.
Loeffler met Sprecher when she worked at the ICE, where she was senior vice president of corporate communications, marketing, and investor relations. Sprecher, who is 15 years older than Loeffler, married her in 2004. Based on their history, both love money and power and are not accountable to their shareholders or constituents. According to Bloomberg, the couple’s estimated net worth is $1 billion.
Insider Trading is OK With Loeffler and Sprecher
As a U.S. Senator from Georgia, Loeffler voted in favor of regulations that would benefit her and her husband personally by voting on regulations that were considered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that came before her committee for a vote. The Wall Street Journal and Mother Jones Magazine reporter David Corn reported this story in detail.
Now, as Trump’s Small Business Administration head, she can repeat her transgressions since she learned from her past escapades.
She also called herself the most conservative Republican in the Senate and supported Trump; she voted in line with Trump’s positions 80% of the time. As a Trump acolyte, she supported Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to build a border wall, and opposed abortion, all COVID-19 prevention measures, gun control, and the right of transgender women to participate in sports.
Loeffler will also do whatever it takes to appease Trump supporters. In this video clip, Loeffler is repeatedly asked who won the 2020 election but cannot say Biden won. She may have changed her response after her Republican handlers gave her the OK. When Trump and his wife contracted COVID, Loeffler Tweeted, “China gave this virus to our President. WE MUST HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.”
The NYSE Ignores Ethics
As for NYSE chairman Sprecher, the insider trading charges raised issues about conflicts of interest and self-dealing and gave the appearance of impropriety. All this has damaged the reputation of the nation’s public company marketplace and its listed companies. NYSE-listed companies that value transparency and corporate governance should be very concerned when their shares trade on an exchange that tolerates insider trading.
Since the NYSE was founded in 1792, insider trading has been a perennial and severe charge for the exchange’s Compliance Department. However, the Compliance Department looked the other way when Sprecher was charged.
The NYSE is a Designated Self-Regulatory Organization (DSRO) and can investigate and punish member firms and their top executives without SEC approval. As a publicly traded company now owned by ICE, the NYSE must comply with the same standards it applies to its own listed companies.
According to the exchange’s own rules, Sprecher violated the following:
- NYSE Rule 2010. Standards of Commercial Honor and Principles of Trade; and,
- NYSE Rule 303A.10 Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, including its conflict-of-interest provisions and insider trading rules, says explicitly, “The listed company should proactively promote compliance with laws, rules, and regulations, including insider trading laws. Insider trading is unethical and illegal and should be dealt with decisively.”
The US Justice Department dismissed the couple’s insider trading charges, citing SEC Rule b5-1. This rule allows company insiders to sell a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time.
The NYSE Board also can reprimand Sprecher, but it was publicly silent when the insider trading charges were announced. Maybe that is because Sprecher, as chairman, also controls the NYSE board and the parent company (ICE) that owns exchanges worldwide. If they choose to use it, the board also has the authority to punish or remove Sprecher. But they proved too frail to take any action.
Sprecher and Loeffler’s actions raise questions about their use of non-public information obtained from federal sources and their shady personal motives. The NYSE has had many insider trading scandals in its history and controversial decisions to award top executives, such as former NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso, a huge $188 million payoff upon retirement.
As Trump sycophants and large donors, this couple should be on the radar screens of public companies listed on the NYSE, the media, and voters.
History is repeating itself under Trump’s second term, a further sign that American political ethics have decayed, as his corrupt regime pushes for less regulation and less personal accountability among his appointees. This is exemplified by Loeffler and Sprecher, both of whom are unrepentant repeat offenders.
It’s also a fair question for average Americans to ask: Why would billionaires continue to violate ethical standards and engage in insider trading? The answer is that billionaires in the Trump circle are addicted to money. They don’t care where it comes from, who it is taken from, and how it disadvantages others.
That’s why it’s laughable that Trump today announced that he is imposing tariffs on 60 countries because he claims they engage in forced labor. Trump has zero concern for forced labor victims, just as he employed undocumented workers on his construction projects. It’s perverse when the Trump administration focuses on forced labor in 60 nations, when its own Labor Department doesn’t enforce labor violations against American citizens.
Where Is the Financial Media?
One of the most profound changes in financial journalism since Trump’s first term is that most outlets don’t even bother to report on Trump’s corruption. Part of this is due to weak editors. The other part is exemplified by what Trump supporters and billionaires are doing to CBS and the Washington Post.
This concerted effort to control major news outlets, starve NPR, intimidate reporters, control the Fed, and push crypto, online betting, prediction markets, and ways to facilitate money laundering is all part of the right-wing’s American coup.
In an interview, a Bloomberg reporter was asked about Trump’s ongoing violation of the Emoluments Clause, which was obvious during his first term, when he directed that political events be held at the hotel he owned, the former National Post Office. The Bloomberg reporter answered that reporters did not even report on violations of the Emoluments Clause because such violations were so common under the Trump regime.
Since then, the financial media continues to report that cryptocurrency is an “asset class” and an “investment”, even though it does not meet the definitions of either. Ask any financial reporter when crypto last paid a dividend. Answer: Never.
So, it’s no surprise that the real meaning of crypto is to avoid taxes, undermine the Federal Reserve, facilitate gambling, and money laundering. That explains why the Trump regime, including his sons and special Envoy Witkoff, stands to make huge returns on a money substitute that will undermine the U.S. financial system.
Add that to Trump’s attacks on the traditional Federal Reserve System, Jerome Powell, encouraging the prediction markets that are nothing more than another gambling venue, and the expansion of online betting. All this occurs as the gap between the top 1% and the bottom 99% gets wider daily.
Trump has also received a temporary stay from the IRS investigation into his companies for IRS violations, from his hand-picked former attorney, who is now heading the Justice Department. Some intrepid reporter should interview Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to 15 counts ranging from grand larceny to tax fraud to falsifying business records. Weisselberg spent five months in prison and received five years’ probation in exchange for testifying against his former co-defendant and longtime employer, the Trump Organization.
The reporter can now ask Weisselberg why the IRS cannot pursue Trump for tax violations if his accountant testified that he committed them.
As Trump has said, “Let the looting begin.”
