WASHINGTON (AP) – The presidential campaign of Senator Obama, Democrat of Illinois, Wednesday defended two investments he made right after his election to the Senate, saying he was unaware of the stock purchases at the time and did nothing to directly aid either company in its business before the federal government.

The two companies – AVI Biopharma and Skyterra Communications – were backed by some top donors to Mr. Obama’s political committees.

Mr. Obama purchased $5,000 in shares for AVI, which was developing a drug to treat avian flu. Two weeks after buying the stock, Mr. Obama pushed for more federal funding to fight the disease, but company officials said they never talked to Mr. Obama about his work in the area.

The Illinois senator had more than $50,000 in shares of Skyterra, a company that had just received federal permission to create a nationwide wireless network that combined satellite and land-based communications systems.

Among the company’s top investors were donors who raised more than $150,000 for Mr. Obama’s political committees, the New York Times reported Wednesday. The stock holdings were first examined Monday by the financial Web site, Thestreet.com.

The reports found no evidence that any of his actions ended up benefiting either company during the roughly eight months he owned the stocks. The campaign of Mr. Obama trumpeted that finding at the top of a statement issued Wednesday morning.

Mr. Obama’s spokesman, Bill Burton, said the Democrat, who has been campaigning on his push for congressional ethics reform, did not know that his broker at USB bought the stocks under a blind trust that was being set up at the time.

Mr. Burton said Mr. Obama ended the blind trust after he got a stockholder letter in the mail. Mr. Obama could not remember whether the mail was from AVI, Skyterra or another company he was invested in, Burton said, but he “realized he didn’t have the level of blindness he expected” and sold the stocks in November 2005.

He lost about $15,000 on Skyterra and earned a profit of about $2,000 on AVI.

“Obama owned stock in two companies which he did nothing to help – an investment that lost him $13,000,” Mr. Burton said in a statement Wednesday. “It’s apparent that his dealings were completely above board and his decisions were proactively made in the interest of avoiding the potential for conflict.”

Senate ethics rules do not prohibit lawmakers from owning stocks in companies that do business with the federal government.

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