Elizabeth Warren demands an investigation into whether elite investors profited from the Trump administration's private warnings about COVID-19

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for an investigation into whether elite investors profited from Trump administration officials' privately expressed concerns about COVID-19.
• The New York Times reported Wednesday that the officials told the board of the Hoover Institution in February that they were concerned about the impact of an outbreak, despite painting a rosier picture in public.
• These concerns were included in a memo circulated among investors, some of whom adjusted their portfolios accordingly, The Times reported.
• Warren said the incident "appears to be a textbook case of insider trading" and called on regulators to review the information provided to investors and the trading that happened afterward.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is demanding an investigation into whether Wall Street investors violated trading laws by acting on White House officials' privately expressed concerns about COVID-19.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that top US officials told the board of the Hoover Institution in February that they were concerned about the impact of a coronavirus outbreak, despite painting a rosier picture in public.

The concerns were detailed in a memo that spread through the hedge-fund industry, the paper said. One investor told The Times that their reaction was to "short everything."

Warren said in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission first seen by CNN that the incident "appears to be a textbook case of insider trading."

The Massachusetts Democrat urged the commissions to review the information provided to the investors and the trading that happened afterward.

Warren said she also wanted the financial regulators to find out which US officials provided the information, as well as who received it and how it differed from the Trump administration's public comments.

"If this report is accurate, it represents an appalling abdication of duty by President Trump and top officials in his administration," Warren wrote, according to CNN.

She added that "numerous investors may have used this early and insider information about the looming, tragic economic and public health consequences of the pandemic to extract profits for themselves."

Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump's top economic advisor, told CNBC on February 25 that the US had "contained" the coronavirus. "I won't say airtight, but it's pretty close to airtight," he said.

Later that day, Kudlow told the Hoover Institution board members that COVID-19 was "contained in the US, to date, but now we just don't know," the Times report said.

William Callanan, a hedge-fund consultant, included the comment in the memo that spread to investors, the report said. Callanan wrote that almost every administration official he'd heard addressed the virus "as a point of concern, totally unprovoked," according to The Times.