WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) — A medical device company in which Rep. Tom Price purchased stock last year agreed in December to a $17 million Justice Department criminal penalty in a foreign bribery case.
Democrats are challenging the Georgia Republican, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, on his investments and potential conflicts of interest.
Price bought stock last year in Zimmer Biomet, a medical device maker. The acquisition came around the same time Price introduced legislation to suspend Medicare rules seen as problematic for such companies.
Price says at his confirmation hearing he did nothing wrong. A Price spokesman says Price had been working on the bill for months.
A Trump transition spokesman says “any effort to link Dr. Price’s investment portfolio to a company’s legal troubles is nonsensical, absurd, and insulting.”
