Overstock.com Inc. shares completed their worst two-day decline on record Wednesday, after Chief Executive Patrick Byrne claimed to have worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a “political espionage” case involving Russia, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Overstock’s OSTK, +12.28% stock declined 22.4% Wednesday, the worst single-day percentage decline since 2014, after dropping 17.6% Tuesday. Combined, shares fell 41% in the two trading sessions, which FactSet data shows is the biggest drop since the online retailer went public in 2002.
Byrne was a guest Monday morning on Fox Business, and discussed recent articles that claimed he had a romantic relationship with Maria Butina, who has been convicted of being an unregistered foreign agent from Russia, at the behest of the FBI. He claimed to have collected evidence of a vast conspiracy involving the two 2016 candidates for the presidency, as well as other politicians, and turned it over to federal authorities.
For more: Overstock CEO spins an insane Russian-spy drama, with himself as the star
“I think we are about to see the biggest scandal in American history,” Byrne said in an interview with David Asman on Fox Business. “Everything you think you know about the Russia and Clinton investigations was a lie, it was all political espionage. I think [U.S. Attorney General William Barr] has gotten to the bottom of it.”
Byrne then issued an Overstock news release Monday evening titled “Overstock.com CEO Comments on Deep State, Withholds Further Comment,” in which he proclaimed that “I am the notorious ‘missing Chapter 1’ of the Russian investigation.”
Overstock shares have been on a roller-coaster ride over the past couple of years, hitting a high of around $84 in January 2018 before gradually sinking back to a low of around $9.50 this June. The stock had rebounded to around $25 earlier this month before the sharp decline this week.
The shares are now down 51.5% over the past 12 months, as the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.08% has gained 3%.