ICYMI: Sean Patrick Maloney hit with ethics complaint for violating STOCK Act
Sean Patrick Maloney is facing a nonpartisan ethics complaint after reports showing he apparently violated federal law by failing to disclose thousands of dollars in stock trades.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust isn’t buying Maloney’s attempts to dismiss the late filings as an “oversight” – they argue Maloney has displayed “disregard for the law” and should face “appropriate sanctions including fines and penalties.”
Why does Maloney believe he’s above the law?
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New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney Hit With Congressional Ethics Complaint Over Stock Sale Disclosures
By: Dave Levinthal
Business Insider
April 13, 2021
A nonprofit ethics watchdog has asked Congress’ independent ethics office to investigate Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney for failing to disclose the sale of eight stocks until early April — months past a federally mandated deadline.
Maloney’s office said the late filing was an “oversight.” But the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, citing Insider’s reporting, told the Office of Congressional Ethics that Maloney has displayed “disregard for the law” and should face “appropriate sanctions including fines and penalties.”
“The disclosure requirements are an integral part of an ethical and transparent government: accurate and timely filing is the only method for citizens to determine whether members have conflicts of interest or are wrongfully profiting from their position,” Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust Executive Director Kendra Arnold wrote OCE officials.
The Campaign Legal Center, another nonprofit organization that has previously filed complaints against federal lawmakers involving their stock trades, is “reviewing the matter,” said Delaney Marsco, the organization’s senior legal counsel for ethics.
“If members of Congress can’t get this right, and the rules are too complicated for them or their financial advisors to follow, then maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to trade stocks in the first place,” Marsco said.
Maloney, who serves as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, inherited the eight stocks from his late mother and sold them in June for a combined $11,051, according to documents he filed with the US House.
Among the stocks were shares of Apple Inc., Microsoft Corporation, alcohol conglomerate Diageo PLC, and investment management company BlackRock Inc.
By law, Maloney should have publicly disclosed the stock sales by the middle of last summer but didn’t do so until earlier this month.
Late filings of this sort can expose a member of Congress to an investigation and potential fine.
“During preparation for the filer’s [financial disclosure] report, it was determined that these 8 transactions totaling $11k should have been reported on a [periodic transaction report],” Maloney wrote on April 2 to the Clerk of the House of Representatives. “As soon as this oversight was discovered, this filing was submitted to provide full transparency into that sale.”
Maloney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Asked about the stock sales last week, Maloney spokesperson Libbie Wilcox told Insider that her office assumes “this is a routine belated filing issue, and if there is a penalty of course we will pay.”
The Office of Congressional Ethics — an independent, nonpartisan body empowered by the House to investigate accusations of misconduct — may report its findings to the bipartisan Committee on House Ethics.
In March, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust and Campaign Legal Center filed separate complaints against Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey, for failing to properly disclose stock trades valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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