Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor who previously advised Trump, sold $31.3 million in steel shares days before the tariff announcement.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s murky business dealings since his former advisee, Donald Trump, became president last year have been reported on a great length. So it comes as no surprise that, according to The Guardian, he sold $31.3 million shares in Manitowoc Company, a crane and lifting supplier company whose business model is heavily dependent on steel imports days before the president announced his new tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Icahn’s financial dealings, which were first reported by ThinkProgress, were discovered in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Per The Guardian:
Icahn was able to sell his shares for $32 to $34. On Friday morning Manitowoc’s shares had fallen 5.48% to $26.37. The fall was in line with drops seen by other companies dependent on cheap steel imports, including Boeing and Caterpillar.
Because of the large nature of the sale, Icahn was required by law to disclose it to the SEC. He first began selling shares in Manitowoc on February 12th, when the company’s stock was still worth $32 to $34 a piece. In the days that followed, he systematically sold the rest of his shares seemingly in advance of Trump’s tariff announcement on Thursday. And while this may all just be a coincidence, ThinkProgress noted that Icahn “did not buy or sell any shares of Manitowoc between January 17,2015 and February 11,2018.”
