Fact-Check: No, Ro Khanna's Family Trust Is Not Beating the Market
Setting the record straight on a claim circulating in partisan circles.
At Hunter Index, our job isn’t to protect politicians — it’s to hold them accountable with accurate data. That cuts both ways. When misinformation about a politician’s personal finances spreads in public discourse, we’ll call that out too.
A claim has been circulating in partisan circles that Rep. Ro Khanna’s family trusts have “beaten the market” — implying his household is profiting from inside information despite his vocal support for a congressional stock trading ban. The data says otherwise.
As Hunter Index reported in March 2025, the Khanna family wealth flows almost entirely from trusts that Monte Ahuja — Ritu’s father and founder of Transtar Industries — created in the 1990s, well before Ro and Ritu married in 2015. Neither Ro nor Ritu directs the trades. An independent, third-party trustee manages the assets in compliance with ethics rules.
Hunter Index can confirm that based on our independent analysis of the Khanna portfolio, it has not outperformed the market according to publicly available disclosure reports and the industry standard of using the S&P 500 as a stand-in for “the market.”
The California Democrat put the performance numbers on the record himself this month writing:
“According to Unusual Whales, the trust has consistently underperformed the broader market:
2025: 12.6% vs. S&P 500 (SPY) at 16.8%
2024: 19.1% vs. SPY at 24.9%
2023: 12.7% vs. SPY at 24.8%
Three years running, it has trailed a basic index fund, not the trade record of someone using a congressional seat for personal gain.”
On May 29, Rep. Khanna told us: “My in laws set up a pre-marriage trust for my wife that is independently managed. I have zero say in any of its decisions and zero knowledge. I do not trade stocks and never have.”
We’d also like to remind readers that we did an exclusive analysis of how many members of Congress “beat the market” over a prolonged period last year. Spoiler alert: not many.
Why Does It Matter?
A fact-check is a fact-check. The trusts underperformed the market. They were established before the marriage and independently managed by a third-party trustee, not the Khanna family. The record is publicly verifiable.
There is plenty of legitimate debate to be had about whether trusts are sufficient reform, whether the STOCK Act goes far enough, and whether family wealth of this scale creates any appearance problems regardless of who manages it. Those are fair questions, and Hunter Index will keep asking them.
But the specific claim that the Khanna family trusts — benefiting Ritu and the Khanna children — are “beating” the market? The numbers don’t support it.
Please be informed of your politicians’ personal financial information. That’s our mission.
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