A nonpartisan research group found that 48 members of Congress or their immediate families invested heavily in Apple.
Berkeley, Calif.-based MapLight reported one of the notable investors was Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D- Calif.) husband, Paul, who heads the list with shares worth between $1 million and $5 million, according to Forbes. Next on the list is Rep. James Renacci (R-Ohio) who has between $300,000 and $750,000 in Apple shares, followed by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) who has between $250,000 to $500,000 in Apple shares that she owns jointly.
The legislators aren't required to give an exact value of their assets, but a minimum and a maximum value for each asset. MapLight also has a database where interested parties can browse assets by company, including Apple or Google -- although Google didn't make the Top 15, according to MapLight data. Instead, Apple ranked No. 5, while Google was No. 25. No. 1 on the list of investors was General Electric with 69 members holding shares, followed by Microsoft and Proctor & Gamble.
Most legislators aren't new to Capitol Hill, so it's likely their investments are 25 years or older, which would make Apple fall into that category, along with stalwarts like GE and Microsoft. However, the only question is -- does this cause a conflict of interest? Are members of Congress willing to fight for these companies to better their bottom line? Seeing Google at No. 25 could make one think that perhaps it's not a surprise that the search engine was the focus of so many security probes, while other tech companies were relatively untouched in the last decade.
