On the recordAugust 8, 2021
I have to respond. For the Senator from Illinois to say that Vanita Gupta has no relationship with Avantor, the company that has been selling this precursor drug into Mexico that is used to manufacture heroin--it is true, she is not part of the board of directors or the administration or the leadership of that corporation, but she literally owns or did own tens of millions of dollars of stock in Avantor. We do not yet know whether she has kept her promise to sell that Avantor stock. She said she would during her confirmation hearing, and we are investigating to see whether she actually followed through and kept that promise. But for one of the chief law enforcement officers of the United States to own tens of millions of dollars' worth of stock in a company that arguably violated U.S. law by selling chemical precursors into Mexico that are used to make heroin that has killed so many Americans through drug overdoses is a serious matter. I would not raise this issue if I did not feel that it was so serious. Again, I think the solution is very simple. But the suggestion that Ms. Gupta has no relationship with Avantor is simply not true unless she has, unbeknownst to us at this point, disgorged the tens of millions of dollars of stock that she owns in that company. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
