(Reported by Wall Street Journal) No matter in what reasons and circumstances, federal officials in the executive branch must not involve in any interests with the companies that are supervised by their regulation! However, during the last two presidential administrations, thousands federal officers have involved in trading stocks in companies that their agencies oversee! These behaviors are representing potential criminal offenses with conflicts of interest! It is another form of corruption!
āThe Wall Street Journal analyzed over 31,000 financial disclosure forms dated between 2016 and 2021, which included information on over 315,000 trades in stocks, bonds and funds by officials and their immediate families. These documents showed that over 2,600 senior officials across 50 federal agencies have disclosed owning stock in companies that have lobbied the agency that they work in. This represents more than one in five senior federal executive branch officials, the report found.ā - Wall Street Journal.
āThese stock holdings reveal that not only do officials have personal financial interest in companies they are responsible for regulating, but also that they may be trading stocks at seemingly opportune times.ā- Wall Street Journal.
āNearly one in three Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials have reported owning investments in companies lobbying the agency, holding up to $2 million in shares in fossil fuel companies on average yearly between 2016 and 2021.ā - Wall Street Journal.
Michael Molina, a senior adviser to the deputy EPA administrator, had owned oil and gas stocks that could have benefited from Trumpās policies favoring fossil fuel companies.In another potential conflict of interest,
Malcolm Bertoni, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official, owned a number of stocks in food and drug companies that he said the agency gave him permission to own - despite those companies being on the agencyās no-buy list.
Greg Zacharias, a Defense Department official, had bought stock in Lockheed Martin five times just before the Pentagon awarded it a new $1 billion contract.Itās possible that many of these trades were legal, even if there are conflicts of interest.
Defense Secretary office officials collectively owned between $1.2 and $3.4 million in defense contractors or defense companies on average in the studied years.
Opinion: This phenomenon is a cancer to the integrity of the US government!