Sallie Mae Trading Queried
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By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: February 14, 2007
Democratic lawmakers said yesterday that they had requested copies of correspondence between the White House and Sallie Mae, the student loan company known as the SLM Corporation, after stock sales by the chairman days before the share price fell with the release of President Bush’s budget.
The chairman of Sallie Mae, Albert L. Lord, sold shares worth more than $18 million over several days before the unveiling of the budget on Feb. 5. The budget included a cut in payments to student loan companies.
The request came from Representative George Miller of California, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, and Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee. In addition, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the Senate education committee called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate, saying the sale raises “obvious concerns” about the possibility of “inappropriate communications.”
A White House spokeswoman said the letter had not been received yet, but that it would be handled appropriately.
A spokesman for Sallie Mae, Tom Joyce, said that the timing of the stock sale was coincidental and that the company would be responsive to the requests for information. |
