Washington—The AFL-CIO has asked the federal Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate
whether the purchase of more than 870,000 shares in student-loan servicer Navient Corp. involved insider trading. In an Oct. 10 letter, the federation asked the SEC to probe the three trades—which made up almost a quarter of Navient shares purchased Aug. 31, the day before it was revealed that the Department of Education would no longer give information about the company to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB had sued Navient in January, accusing it of “systematically and illegally failing borrowers at every stage of repayment.” The trades happened late in the day, after the CFPB had been notified of the move but before House Education and Workforce Committee chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) announced it publicly. The AFL-CIO’s office of investment said it wanted the SEC to look at whether they violated laws against insider trading or the ban on members of Congress or their staff using private information they obtain in their work for personal profit. Navient stock went up by 55¢ a share on Sept. 1, a gain of about 4%. AFL-CIO unions own Navient stock through their pension funds. Read more
