Obama Investments Scrutinized

ABC’s Jake Whitman Reports:  Stock purchases made by Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, less than two months before he entered the U.S. Senate are raising questions this morning.

The New York Times reports Obama bought more than $50,000 worth of stock in two companies whose major investors included some of his biggest political donors.

The report says one of the companies was beginning to develop a drug to treat avian flu and that two weeks after Obama purchased $5,000 of its shares, he pushed for more federal spending to fight the disease.

A spokesman for Obama is quoted as saying that the senator was not aware of the investments until the fall of 2005, and that when he learned of it, he sold the stocks at a loss.

The Times report points out there is no evidence that Obama’s actions benefited either company, but it says, "the stock purchases raise questions about how he could unwittingly come to invest in two relatively obscure companies, whose backers happen to include generous contributors to his political committees."