Three directors of Huntington Ingalls Industries, America’s largest military shipbuilder, made an unusual move in February. They purchased company stock on the open market for virtually the first time in their board tenures – just days before President Trump announced a major initiative to “resurrect” the U.S. shipbuilding industry.

The timing has raised serious questions about potential insider trading at the highest levels of the defense industry.

As first reported by Robinhood, Huntington Ingalls’ chairman, retired Admiral Kirkland H. Donald, along with directors John K. Welch and Thomas C. Schievelbein, bought company shares between February 13 and February 27. On March 4, Trump delivered his State of the Union address, unexpectedly declaring plans to revitalize American shipbuilding with tax incentives and other support.

The announcement triggered the single best day for Huntington Ingalls stock since its 2011 public debut, with shares jumping 12.4% in a single session.

For the three directors, the nearly 3,700 shares they purchased increased in value by more than $90,000 in a single day, with additional gains following. None have sold their newly acquired shares, according to available SEC filings.

What makes these transactions particularly suspicious is the directors’ previous purchasing patterns – or lack thereof. Prior to February, SEC records show no history of open-market purchases by Donald (a director since 2017) or Welch (a director since 2015). Schievelbein, on the board since 2011, had made purchases only once before – during the COVID-19 market crash of March 2020.

Daniel Taylor, an accounting professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who specializes in corporate insider trading, described the transactions as “very unusual” after reviewing the SEC records.

“The timing of these trades in a major shipbuilder, by members of the board of that shipbuilder, less than one week before the president announces a new shipbuilding initiative is highly suspicious,” Taylor told Robinhood.

When contacted by the brokerage, Huntington Ingalls declined to address specific questions about the directors’ trading activities, stating only that the company maintains “robust policies and procedures governing trading” that “were followed as expected with respect to the transactions at issue.”

The purchases came at a critical time for the company, which had seen its stock price drop roughly 40% from its March 2023 high amid production challenges and slow Navy contracting. Following Trump’s announcement, shares have rebounded approximately 14%, significantly outperforming the broader market, which has flirted with correction territory.

The SEC, which is responsible for investigating such potential securities violations, has not announced any inquiry into the matter. Under the current administration, such an investigation appears moot, given the unrelenting pattern of criminal conduct by the president and those aligned with him over the first two months of his presidency.

The case highlights the broader issue of insider trading in American politics and business. Members of Congress from both parties, including Nancy Pelosi, Ted Cruz, Mitt Romney, and Rhode Island’s own Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, have faced scrutiny for stock trades made with privileged information.

Despite widespread suspicions and blatant timing, the SEC has never charged a sitting member of Congress with insider trading. In fact, insider trading prosecutions remain relatively rare across the board, making it one of the lowest-risk and highest profit white-collar crimes.

What emerges is a troubling picture of a two-tiered justice system: one for powerful insiders who can profit from privileged information with minimal consequences, and another for everyone else.

As Reuters later reported, the White House is indeed preparing an executive order to create a Maritime Security Trust Fund that would offer tax credits, grants, and loans to boost American shipbuilding – exactly the kind of specific policy information that could prove immensely valuable to industry insiders before public disclosure.

For now, the Huntington Ingalls directors have kept their gains while maintaining silence about what they knew and when. Danny Hernandez, the company’s director of public affairs, confirmed that all three directors declined to comment on their transactions.