The stock-trade disclosures were late filed by Pat and John.
Chris Jacobs is a Republican from New York.
The STOCK Act has been violated by at least 63 members of Congress.
The US House's independent, nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics has determined that there is reason to believe that two Republican congressmen violated federal law and House rules.
The board of the Office of Congressional Ethics voted to recommend that the US House Committee on Ethics investigate the two politicians for failing to comply with the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.
While the Office of Congressional Ethics does not have the authority to enforce federal ethics laws, they referred both cases to the House Committee on Ethics for further review and potential penalties that ranged from fines and reprimands to formal censures and, in extreme cases, expulsion.
Insider previously reported that he failed to properly disclose five individual stock transactions worth as much as $75,000. The Office of Congressional Ethics investigated and found that from early last year to December of this year, Rutherford had reported 157 financial transactions that were worth between $652,000 and $3.5 million.
The stock trades were late by months. They were worth as much as $17.53 million. The Office of Congressional Ethics began reviewing his case in October of 2021.
Members of Congress have 30 days to report their stock trades, but up to 45 days if they learned about a trade a few days later. The Office of Congressional Ethics posted a slideshow of ethics training it gives to new members about the deadlines for publicly disclosing stock trades.
The reporting requirements of the STOCK Act are intended to help the public assess whether or not lawmakers can profit from their votes. It becomes harder to evaluate ties when they are late.
The Office of Congressional Ethics was created by Congress in 2008 and it stated in its report that Fallon refused to cooperate with the review by producing a limited set of documents and refusing to be interviewed.
The OCE was undermined by this non-cooperation and was unable to fully assess the reasons for his late filing.
He should have known about the obligations no later than February 2021, but he continued to blow past deadlines after his broker made other trades.
He denied that he was not cooperative. In a letter to the committee chairs, he asked them to dismiss his case. The freshman member of Congress, who made his fortune in the apparel business, said in the letter that he did not know he had to disclose stock trades by his broker.
He wrote through his attorney that this is a common misconception and that it often results in late disclosures because of the overwhelming amount of information new members and their staff receive at the beginning of their terms. When he was in the Texas legislature, he had to reveal the information annually.
The letter says that Fallon paid a late penalty and hired a team to make sure he filed his reports correctly. The Office of Congressional Ethics report shows that he paid $600 in fines.
The Office of Congressional Ethics investigation was called unnecessary in the letter.
Austin Higginbotham, a spokesman for the congressman, told Insider that the congressman wouldn't be commenting any further than his response.
In his letter to the Ethics Committee, he asked that the matter be dropped.
Belinski said that the late filing was down to a simple misunderstanding of the requirements.
The Office of Congressional Ethics investigators said in their report that Rutherford and his chief of staff, Jenifer Bradley, refused to cooperate with the review and didn't agree to an interview. The receipt was published by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
The third case was reported to the House Committee on Ethics, but investigators did not agree on whether the congressman had violated the STOCK Act. Forbes first reported that Jacobs was late in filing transactions for months, and the board tied 3-3 over whether to recommend a violation.
In his letter to the House Committee on Ethics, Jacobs said that one of the trades was actually a corporate spinoff, but did not explain the other late filings.
The GOP lawmakers are not the only ones blowing past STOCK Act deadlines.
According to Insider and other news outlets, at least 63 members of Congress have violated the STOCK Act in the last two years. The Office of Congressional Ethics referred Tom Malinowski to the House Committee on Ethics because they believed he had violated the STOCK Act.
The Office of Congressional Ethics cited Insider's on Fallon in its investigation, calling them pervasive.
Lawmakers from both parties have introduced several bills to limit or ban trading of individual stocks, increase financial transaction transparency, and strengthen fines for violating existing law.
After a congressional hearing in April on the matter, progress has slowed as lawmakers attempt to craft a single bill that could pass on the floors of both the House and Senate.
Improving ethics training would be adequate in addressing late disclosure issues.
Others want to go further.
A coalition of reform advocates, government watchdog groups, and political organizations wrote a letter to President Joe Biden last week urging him to push Congress to ban its members from trading individual stocks.
The original article is on Business Insider.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
