Warren Buffett, the famed CEO of Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, has always made clear that he operates a personal investment account separate from his work in Berkshire. But over the years, Buffett has said quite clearly that he avoids any personal trades that might conflict with those made by his company.
In a 2012 meeting, Buffett explained that, though he would love to personally buy shares of Wells Fargo, he couldn't, because it was a stock that Berkshire had purchased.
"And that’s one of the problems I have, is that I can’t be buying what Berkshire is buying," he said. "I’ve got some money around, and therefore, I go into my second choices, or into tiny little companies."
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Buffett added at the time that his "best ideas are all in Berkshire, that I can promise you."
He reiterated this point in 2016, saying that 99% of his net worth is in Berkshire; the remaining 1% goes into companies that have nothing to do with Berkshire's trades.
"As a practical matter, you know, my best ideas are — I hope they’re my best ideas —are off-limits for me because they go to Berkshire, if they’re sizable enough to have a significance to Berkshire," he said.
"I try to stay away from anything that could conflict with Berkshire," he added.
But a recent leak of IRS data, reviewed by ProPublica, revealed that over the past 20 years, Buffett has made personal trades in the same or prior quarter that Berkshire bought shares in the same companies.
Berkshire did not return TheStreet's request for comment.
Such trades, made before Berkshire disclosed its purchase publicly, occurred at least three times, according to ProPublica.
This is seemingly at-odds with Berkshire's ethics policy, which requires all "actual and anticipated securities transactions of Berkshire" to be public before employees can trade the same stocks personally.
Buffett declined to respond to ProPublica's questions concerning his personal trades.
Berkshire, 93, recently reported a 40% increase to $10.761 billion in operating earnings for the third-quarter, amassing a record high of $157.2 billion in cash.
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