How strong is the STOCK act, really?

[SunsetBengal]

The STOCK act was put in place in 2012 to put a stop to Congressmen and Senators profiting from trading via insider information. Even though there is a law in place, dozens of violations have taken place since, by members of both parties. How strong are the punishments for violations of this law? I'm guessing that they're not nearly strong enough, as the subject of the headline of this article has now been found in violation for a second time. Now, the subject of the headline of this article happens to be a Democrat from NC, later in the article it goes onto name some big names from parties who have been found to have violated this law.

What I am asking is: If politicians are so willing to violate this law, then I'm thinking that the benefits they gain through profits must far exceed the detriment of the punishment for doing so. Does this law have any real teeth?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/oops-i-did-it-again-this-democratic-congresswoman-violated-a-federal-law-for-a-second-time/ar-AA1eVkrY?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=a22b1a0a9184445ba1fab648058c8799&ei=17

Quote:ADemocratic congresswoman from North Carolina with a history of more than 50 late stock disclosures appears to have violated a decade-old federal transparency and conflicts-of-interest law.

Again.

Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.) reported purchasing $29,122 worth of stock in investment management company Blackstone Inc. on June 10, 2022, jointly with her husband — more than a year late, according to an Aug. 2 federal filing reviewed by Raw Story.

“The purchase was inadvertently omitted due to an administrative error. The error was discovered during preparation of the 2022 Annual Report for timely filing on August 2, 2023,” read a description on Manning’s filing.

The description noted that Manning sold the stock at a loss five days later for $25,755 on June 15, 2022, which she correctly reported to U.S. House officials on July 7, 2022 report.

But Manning never disclosed she purchased the stock in the first place — a requirement of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. The law, passed in 2012 to stop insider trading, curb conflicts-of-interest and enhance transparency, requires prompt reporting within 45 days of most purchases, sales and exchanges of stocks, bonds, commodity futures and cryptocurrency by key government officials, particularly members of Congress.

This is Manning’s second known STOCK Act violation. Sludge reported in February 2022 that Manning and her husband failed to properly report 51 trades totaling between $275,000 and $1.25 million.

Many of the 51 stocks were in tech companies such as Meta and Amazon, which have faced high-stakes legislative battles in Congress.

The couple’s stock transactions with Nvidia, meanwhile, came at a time when the semiconductor company stood to benefit from billions in subsidies from the America COMPETES Act, according to Sludge.

Manning was one of eight representatives who signed a letter asking for the delay of a House Judiciary Committee markup of antitrust bills, Sludge reported as well.

Manning also purchased shares in chip manufacturers, Micron Technology and Nvidia, on July 27, 2022, the day before she voted for the bipartisan CHIPS Act. But she said the purchases were made by a third-party broker, not by herself or husband directly, local North Carolina Fox station WGHP reported.

“Congresswoman Manning and her husband have no discretion or control over the underlying assets held in the accounts. Neither Congresswoman Manning nor her husband exercised, or attempted to exercise, any control or direction over any transactions executed within the accounts,” said a statement from Manning’s staff sent to WGHP. “Congresswoman Manning supported the CHIPS Act because it will incentivize investments in semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, which will create good-paying jobs, strengthen our country’s competitive edge, and protect our national security.”

Manning’s congressional office did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.

The standard fine for violating the STOCK Act is $200, but the House Committee on Ethics and Senate Select Committee on Ethics have historically waived the fees for many violators.

In a recent interview with Raw Story, one of the STOCK Act’s original authors, former Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), blasted Congress for its continued excuses for failing to abide by the law.

“I mean, come on. ‘The dog ate my homework,’ aren’t we a little more grown up than that?” Baird said. “If we're capable of voting on whether or not to raise or lower taxes or send people to war, I think we can report when we make an investment.”

Epidemic of violations
Dozens of members of Congress have failed to comply with the STOCK Act. During the 117th Congress from 2021 to 2022, at least 78 members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans alike — were found to have violated the STOCK Act's disclosure provisions, according to a tally maintained by Insider.

Raw Story has this year identified at least 19 members of the 118th Congress who have broken the federal conflicts of interest law, including the new addition of Manning.

In recent weeks, repeat violators have broken the federal disclosure law again — Rep. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) violated the STOCK Act for the third time in 14 months, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) was several months late disclosing a family stock sale — again.

And Manning isn’t the only North Carolina legislator to violate the STOCK Act.

Of the 19 legislators Raw Story has identified as violating the STOCK Act, four of them are from North Carolina — Manning, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C). and Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C). That’s one in four members of North Carolina’s 16-member congressional delegation — 14 House members and two senators.

The ongoing violations come at a time when a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced several similar bills aimed at banning congressional stock trading.

The most recent legislation introduced is the Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials Act, which would prohibit members of Congress, the president, the vice president, senior executive branch officials, their spouses and children from trading stocks and would require greater transparency with financial disclosures, The Hill reported.

Another two-party bill, the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act was introduced in May and is co-sponsored in part by political rivals in Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

Other materially similar bills include the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act, the TRUST in Congress Act and the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act. In the decade since the STOCK Act’s passage, the push for a total ban on lawmakers trading stocks while in office gained but then lost momentum last year when the Democratic-led House, then led by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, decided not to conduct a hearing on any of stock-ban bills and never brought it to the House floor for a vote.

News organizations including the New York Times, Insider, NPR and Sludge have documented rampant financial conflicts of interests among dozens of members of Congress, such as those who bought and sold defense contractor stock while occupying positions on congressional armed services committees or otherwise voting on measures to send such companies billions of federal dollars. The executive and judicial branches are riddled with similar financial conflict issues, too, as the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The Wall Street Journal won a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for its investigation into financial conflicts among officials who work in federal agencies while Insider won the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sunshine Award for its reporting on congressional financial conflicts.

[*pally*]

It was a feel-good law to "prove" to the American people that Congress was taking concerns about their insider trading and conflicts of interest seriously. It has as much bite as my 14-year-old toothless shih tzu did.

As you noted despite the initial subject of the article being a Democrat, this law and the other financial reporting laws, have abusers on both sides of the aisle.

No federally elected official or immediate family member should directly own individual stocks. Any financial holding (personal home exempted) should be placed into a blind trust for the duration of their federal service. That's not likely to happen though

[Belsnickel]

It's toothless, like most things put in place to hold those in power accountable.

[Goalpost]

"The standard fine for violating the STOCK Act is $200, but the House Committee on Ethics and Senate Select Committee on Ethics have historically waived the fees for many violators."

This is a slap on the wrist.

For the record, I own Nvidia and have held it for about 3 years.

[basballguy]

There are literally ETF's that try to match congress's investments (and those close to them)

That should tell you how strong it is.

Edit: Here's an old article on it: https://www.cnbc.com/select/congressional-stock-trading-could-soon-be-tracked/

[SunsetBengal]

Wow, turns out that the "punishment" has less gravity on a politician that a mere speeding ticket has on a common citizen. Seems like politicians should be held to a higher standard, rather than setting such low standards for themselves. I mean the penalty for private citizens and corporations face for insider trading is large and severe. Why the two tiered justice system?

https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-stock-act-violations-senate-house-trading-2021-9

Quote:78 members of Congress have violated a law designed to prevent insider trading and stop conflicts-of-interest
Dave Levinthal and Madison Hall Updated Jan 3, 2023, 11:29 AM EST
congressional stock report lobbying federal government 4x3
Marianne Ayala/Insider
Insider and other media have identified numerous US lawmakers not complying with the federal STOCK Act.
Their excuses range from oversights, to clerical errors, to inattentive accountants.
Congress considered banning lawmakers from trading individual stocks, but Democratic leaders never acted on legislation.

Insider and several other news organizations have identified 78 members of Congress who've recently failed to properly report their financial trades as mandated by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, also known as the STOCK Act.

Congress passed the law a decade ago to combat insider trading and conflicts of interest among their own members and force lawmakers to be more transparent about their personal financial dealings. A key provision of the law mandates that lawmakers publicly — and quickly — disclose any stock trade made by themselves, a spouse, or a dependent child.

But many members of Congress have not fully complied with the law. They offer excuses including ignorance of the law, clerical errors, and mistakes by an accountant. Insider has chronicled this widespread nature of this phenomenon in "Conflicted Congress," an ongoing reporting project initially published in December 2021.

While lawmakers who violate the STOCK Act face a fine, the penalty is usually small — $200 is the standard amount — or waived by House or Senate ethics officials. Ethics watchdogs and even some members of Congress have called for stricter penalties or even a ban on federal lawmakers from trading individual stocks.


On Capitol Hill, lawmakers seriously debated such a ban, with a vote on a consensus bill seemingly imminent during early autumn. But Democrats, who enjoyed majorities in the House and Senate through January 2023, did not press legislation forward, and a bill to ban lawmakers from trading stocks ultimately died.

A Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate would need to work together in 2023 and beyond to reignite a congressional stock-ban effort.

Here are the lawmakers discovered to have recently violated the STOCK Act — to one extent or another:


Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California
Feinstein was months late disclosing a five-figure investment her husband made into a private, youth-focused polling company.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama
Tuberville was weeks or months late in disclosing nearly 130 separate stock trades from January to May.


Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas
Marshall was up to 17 months late disclosing stock trades for one of his dependent children.


Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat from Colorado
In May 2020, Hickenlooper was months — and in two cases, more than a year — late in disclosing five separate stock trades for himself or his wife that, taken together, are worth between $565,000 and $1.3 million, nonprofit news organization Sludge reported.

Then, in June, Hickenlooper failed to disclose purchases of varying classes of stock from by his wife. They include shares of Liberty Media Corporation, Qurate Retail, and Liberty Broadband Corporation in 2021 and early 2022. The stocks were valued between $516,006 and $1.2 million. Hickenlooper was also late in reporting that his wife sold between $130,004 and $300,000 worth of stock in Liberty Media Corporation and Liberty Broadband Corporation from March 2022.


Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky
Paul was 16 months late in disclosing that his wife bought stock in a biopharmaceutical company that manufactures an antiviral COVID-19 treatment, the Washington Post reported.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island
Whitehouse was a couple days late disclosing January 2022 purchases of Target Corporation and Tesla Inc. stock, each valued at between $15,001 and $50,000.


Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida
Scott on August 15, 2022, reported that he and his wife sold up to $450,000 in stock in Emida Corporation in September 2021 — months after a federal reporting deadline.



Sen. Tom Carper, a Democrat from Delaware
Carper was about four months late disclosing his wife's sale of stock in a gold mining company.

Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee
Hagerty was months late disclosing stock trades on behalf of his dependent children.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming
Lummis was several days late reporting a purchase in August of up to $100,000 in bitcoin, CNBC reported.

Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan
Peters was months late disclosing a purchase of up to $15,000 worth of stock in FS KKR Capital Corp., which manages business development companies, nonprofit news organization Sludge reported.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska
Sullivan was weeks late disclosing the sale of two stock holdings he had inherited.


Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona
Kelly, a retired astronaut, failed to disclose on time his exercising of a stock option on an investment in a company that's developing a supersonic passenger aircraft, Fox Business reported.


Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey
Malinowski failed to disclose dozens of stock trades made during 2020 and early 2021, doing so only after questions from Insider.

The independent Office of Congressional Ethics, in part citing Insider's reporting, found "substantial reason to believe" that Malinowski violated federal rules or laws designed to promote transparency and defend against conflicts. It voted 5-1 to refer its findings to the Democrat-led House Committee on Ethics, which confirmed on October 21 that it will continue reviewing the matter.


Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican from North Carolina
Cawthorn can't seem to stop violating the STOCK Act.

He was months late in May 2022 when disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of purchases and sales of two cryptocurrencies: ethereum and Let's Go Brandon Coin, the latter referencing an anti-Joe Biden slogan.

Then, in June 2022, he was again months late in disclosing two-dozen additional cryptocurrency trades.

And then, in December, Cawthorn was months late disclosing another trade in Let's Go Brandon Coin.

Rep. Pat Fallon, a Republican from Texas
Fallon was months late disclosing dozens of stock trades during early- and mid-2021 that together are worth as much as $17.53 million. Fallon was late again in December 2021 disclosing stock trades.


Rep. Diana Harshbarger, a Republican from Tennessee
In 2021, Harshbarger failed to properly disclose more than 700 stock trades that together are worth as much as $10.9 million.


Rep. Susie Lee, a Democrat of Nevada
Lee failed to properly disclose more than 200 stock trades between early-2020 and mid-2021. Together, the trades are worth as much as $3.3 million.

Separately, Lee and her husband traded eight stocks during 2021 that Lee did not report until August 13, 2022.


Rep. Katherine Clark, a Democrat from Massachusetts
Clark, one of the highest-ranking Democrats in the House, was several weeks late in disclosing 19 of her husband's stock transactions. Together, the trades are worth as much as $285,000. She has since stopped trading stocks.


Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat from New York
Suozzi has repeatedly failed to file on time required reports about his numerous financial transactions.

In 2021, he was months or years late disclosing 300 financial transactions, NPR reported, citing research from the Campaign Legal Center.

In March 2022, Suozzi disclosed more than 30 stock trades months or years past a federal deadline, Insider reported.

In May 2022, he disclosed 10 more stock trades weeks past the federal deadline for doing so.

Then, in December 2022, Suozzi disclosed dozens of additional trades that were months, or in some cases, up to three years late.




Rep. Blake Moore, a Republican from Utah
Moore in early- to mid-2021 did not properly disclose dozens of stock and stock-option trades together worth as much as $1.1 million. He was late again disclosing trades made in August.

On June 7, 2022, Moore established a qualified blind trust, formally ceding control of his investments to an independent trustee.


Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland
Raskin failed to disclose on three annual congressional financial reports that his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, held stock in Reserve Trust. He then didn't disclose that she sold the stock, valued at $1.5 million, until months after a federal deadline for doing so. In early 2022, Raskin explained that sale disclosure delay occurred following his son's death.

Then, in June 2022, Raskin was again late disclosing stock trades. This time, it involved an exchange of stocks his wife received when I(X) Investments merged with Net Zero — a trade valued at between $250,001 and $500,000.


Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama
Brooks, a US House member who ran for a US Senate in 2022 but lost in a primary, failed to properly disclose a sale of Pfizer stock worth up to $50,000. Brooks in December 2022 also disclosed — several months late — that he purchased a Duke Energy corporate bond.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado
Boebert failed for months to disclose between $5,000 and $80,000 worth of transactions, made in 2021, involving various stocks, cryptocurrency, and brokerage funds that belong to her husband, the Colorado Sun reported.


Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas
Crenshaw was months late disclosing several stock trades he made in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Daily Beast reported.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida
Wasserman Schultz was months late reporting four stock trades made either for herself or her child.


Rep. Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from California
Lowenthal was late disclosing his wife's purchase of a corporate bond in cloud computing and technology company VMWare, worth between $15,001 and $50,000, Forbes reported. "We have no comment," Lowenthal spokesman Keith Higginbotham told Insider on November 18.

In June, Lowenthal violated the STOCK Act again when he was months late disclosing four stock or corporate bond trades.

Then, in October, Lowenthal violated the STOCK Act for a third time when he was several weeks late disclosing the sale of Citigroup Inc. corporate bonds.
Lowenthal's office did not respond to several Insider messages about the second and third STOCK Act violations.

Rep. Brian Mast, a Republican from Florida
Mast was late disclosing that he had purchased up to $100,000 in stock in an aerospace company. The president of the company had just testified before a congressional subcommittee on which Mast sits.

Separately, Mast sold stock worth up to $50,000 in Ideal Power, a company that develops power switches for electric vehicles and other machinery, in February 2021. But he didn't properly report the sale to the US House of Representatives until August 12, 2022 — about a year-and-a-half after a federal deadline.

And in October 2022, Mast was more than a year late disclosing an exchange of his shares in Aphria, Inc., for shares of Tilray Brands, Inc.

Brad Stewart, Mast's deputy chief of staff, told Insider "this was an exchange trade that occurred automatically when two companies merged. Congressman Mast did not initiate the trade. It was reflected on his financial disclosure, but a periodic transaction report was not filed because he did not initiate a trade. When this was discovered, it was immediately filed. "


Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from North Carolina
Manning and her husband were late — sometimes by months — disclosing several dozen stock trades made in 2021 that together were worth up to $1.25 million, according to nonprofit news organization Sludge.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey
Sherrill was months late disclosing two sales of vested stock her husband earned as part of his employment. The trades were worth up to $350,000 and Sherrill paid a $400 late fee.

Rep. Kevin Hern, a Republican from Oklahoma
Hern did not disclose nearly two-dozen stock trades in a timely manner, in violation of the STOCK Act. Taken together, the trades are worth as much as $2.7 million.


Rep. Brad Schneider, a Democrat from Illinois
In mid-2022, Schneider was about two months late disclosing two stock trades involving a pet insurance company.
Separately, Schneider's wife sold up to $150,000 worth of Trupanion stock in February and December of 2021. But Schneider did not report the trades until August 13.


Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Democrat from New Mexico
In January 2021, Fernandez sold between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of stock in Golub Capital BDC, an investment company. She waited, however, until December 2022 to actually report the trades — well past the 45-day deadline that Congress established for own members.

Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican from Mississippi
Guest was more than eight months late disclosing trades in the stock of two oil companies held by a family trust benefitting his wife.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat from New York
Maloney was months late in disclosing he sold eight stocks he inherited in mid-2020 when his mother died.

Rep. Lori Trahan, a Democrat from Massachusetts
Trahan was months late disclosing the sale of stock shares in a software company.


Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat from Pennsylvania
Scanlon's husband sold four stocks in February 2021 collectively worth up to $95,000 and exchanged up to $15,000 in shares of DuPont de Nemours early that same month, according to a disclosure she filed August 12, 2022 — almost a year-and-a-half after the fact.
In a separate disclosure filed August 26, 2022, Scanlon was months late reporting an exchange in shares of Exelon Corporation, a power generation company, that she jointly owned with her husband.

Rep. John Rutherford, a Republican from Florida
Rutherford failed to properly disclose five individual stock transactions he made in late 2020.


Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey
Gottheimer and his wife exchanged up to $15,000 worth of stock in Independent Bank Corp. in November 2021, but waited until August 2022 to report it.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado
Lamborn was several months late disclosing that he and his wife traded stock worth between $68,000 and $120,000 in NetApp, a data management company.

Rep. Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee
Green was about two weeks late disclosing the June 2022 purchase of an energy stock valued at up to $250,000.

Rep. David Trone, a Democrat from Maryland
Trone was months late reporting several stocks and structured notes that together are worth well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.


Rep. Carol Miller, a Republican from West Virginia
In September 2022, Miller was months late disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock trades made the year before by her husband. The trades included stock in a COVID-19 vaccine maker and a pair of defense contractors.

Rep. Pete Sessions, a Republican from Texas
Sessions was a month late in reporting a purchase of stock in Amazon.com he made during August 2021. Separately, in early 2022, Sessions was late disclosing seven trades he made in late 2021. Sessions has been an outspoken advocate of allowing members of Congress to trade individual stocks.


Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican from Pennsylvania
Meuser was about one year late disclosing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock purchases his wife and children made during March 2020, LegiStorm reported.

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Florida
Salazar was weeks late disclosing a health care company stock share exchange valued at between $250,001 and $500,000.
The freshman congresswoman had sharply criticized her predecessor, former Rep. Donna Shalala, for her own STOCK Act-related troubles.


Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat from Texas
Gonzalez was nearly a year late in disclosing a sale of up to $15,000 worth of mining company stock.

Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat of Florida
Castor was late disclosing the purchase of tens of thousands of dollars worth of stock shares throughout 2021.


Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat of New Jersey
Pascrell was overdue reporting stock trades he made in December 2019 in General Electric and in August 2019 in pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.

Rep. August Pfluger, a Republican from Texas
Pfluger was several months late disclosing numerous stock purchases or sales made in January or March either by himself or by his wife.


Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democrat from New York
Higgins was about 11 months late disclosing three stock trades he made in late 2020.

Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat from Illinois
Bustos was months late in disclosing that she had sold up to $150,000 worth of stocks in March.

Rep. Steve Chabot, a Republican from Ohio
Chabot was months late disclosing a stock share exchange he held in early 2021.

Rep. Victoria Spartz, a Republican from Indiana
Spartz was two weeks late disclosing a purchase of up to $50,000 worth of stock in a commercial real-estate firm.


Rep. Rick Allen, a Republican from Georgia
Allen, a four-term Republican who represents a large southeastern region of Georgia, appears to have improperly disclosed the purchases and sales of several stocks during 2019 and 2020.

Rep. Kim Schrier, a Democrat from Washington
Schrier was more than two months late disclosing that her husband purchased up to $1 million in Apple Inc. stock, Sludge and Forbes reported. Schrier's office told Insider that the congresswoman was initially unaware of the transaction.


Rep. Kurt Schrader, a Democrat from Oregon
Schrader failed to disclose two stock trades from December 2021 on time.

Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican from Pennsylvania
Kelly was more than seven weeks late reporting a stock purchase made by his wife.


Rep. Chris Jacobs, a Republican from New York
Jacobs was months late filing various transactions made throughout early- to mid-2021, Forbes reported. Then, in September 2022, Jacobs was late disclosing a series of separate trades he made earlier that summer.

Rep. Bill Keating, a Democrat from Massachusetts
Keating was days late disclosing a pair of stock trades he made in September 2022.

Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat from Virginia
Scott was months late in disclosing a pair of stock sales from December 2020, Forbes reported. NPR also reported several other late transactions, as first identified by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.

Rep. Austin Scott, a Republican from Georgia
Scott, a Republican from Georgia, was a week late reporting a handful of transactions conducted by his spouse.


Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat from Colorado
Perlmutter ran a few days late in filing disclosures for as much as $30,000 in stock trades his wife made in June 2021.

In September 2022, Perlmutter was again late disclosing one of his wife's stock trades.

Dwight Evans, a Democrat from Pennsylvania
Evans in December 2021 failed to properly disclose a sale of up to $15,000 worth of stock in American Electric Power Co. Inc.


Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas
Doggett was days late disclosing purchases of four stocks — he said they were automated dividend reinvestments of existing stock holdings — that he made in September 2022.

Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio
Davidson didn't properly disclose the sale of stock worth up to $100,000, reported NPR, citing Campaign Legal Center research.


Rep. Lance Gooden, a Republican from Texas
Gooden failed to file mandatory periodic transaction reports for a dozen stock transactions, per the STOCK Act, reported NPR, citing Campaign Legal Center research. Gooden's office disputed to the Dallas Morning News that the lawmaker did anything wrong.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican from Tennessee
Fleischmann, a Republican from Tennessee, was late in disclosing a pair of stock transactions together worth up to $30,000.

Rep. Michael Burgess, a Republican from Texas
In December 2021, Burgess failed to disclose on time the sale of 100 stock shares in health insurer Cigna Corp.

Rep. Cindy Axne, a Democrat from Iowa
During 2019 and 2020, Axne didn't file required periodic transaction reports for more than three-dozen trades, reported NPR, citing research by the Campaign Legal Center.


Del. Michael San Nicolas, a Democrat from Guam
San Nicolas did not properly disclose two trades — one in 2019 and another in 2020, reported NPR, citing Campaign Legal Center research.

Rep. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont
Welch, an outspoken environmentalist, was late disclosing the sale of his wife's ExxonMobil stock. In December, Welch's office told Insider that the congressman and his wife would both stop trading individual stocks.


Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana
Banks was a week late reporting a handful of stock transactions.

Rep. Mike Garcia, a Republican from California
Garcia was late disclosing several stock trades he made in mid-2020, as first reported by the American Independent.


Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican from Virginia
Wittman was a few days late in disclosing four of his stock transactions that included pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.

Rep. Jim Hagedorn, a Republican from Minnesota
Hagedorn was more than three months late disclosing the sale of stock in a company that makes colon cancer-screening products. Hagedorn died in February 2022.


Rep. Roger Williams, a Republican from Texas
Williams did not properly report three stock transactions his wife made in 2019, reported NPR, citing Campaign Legal Center research.

Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan
Meijer submitted a disclosure in December 2022, just before departing office, containing a series of investments made in 2021.

Read next

[CJD]

The general trend in America (and most of the world, I imagine), is that the wealthy and powerful do not face meaningful punishments for their abuses of power.

You saw it with the 2008 financial crisis where basically no one served any time despite destroying our economy with knowingly reckless and dishonest manipulation of the system. You see it with the aforementioned STOCK act, where at least 78 members of Congress have violated it in some way and, in some cases, only having to pay a fine as low as $200...And even then, those fines can be waived by the Congress ethics committees.
https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-stock-act-violations-senate-house-trading-2021-9

And I can only imagine how many rich and powerful people are cheating on their taxes in some way and see no consequences for it.

It's why stories like Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Deshaun Watson and Donald Trump being arrested/being punished are such big stories. These people are generally immune from consequences, even when it's obvious that they're guilty because they are usually able to buy off the right people (often times the victims) or just hide behind the shroud of plausible deniability.

I don't want to be a doomer, but holding rich and powerful people accountable is extraordinarily difficult and unless they are actually punished when they do violate laws, you're only encouraging them to continue doing it. And paying a 400 dollar fine for not reporting a transaction that was worth $350,000 is nothing.

To many corporations and businesses where violating a law or regulation is just a fine, the fines are seen as the cost of doing business (and that's only if they get caught).
https://medium.com/thing-a-day/huge-government-fines-are-just-the-cost-of-business-14d3ef10bc63

"If the punishment for a crime is merely a fine, then that crime only exists for the lower class."

[SunsetBengal]

I can all but guarantee that if they raised it to a $20K-$500K mandatory fine, along with some sanctions that could put a political careeer in jeopardy, this practice would dry up really quick.

I mean, that's the sort of penalty they would see imposed by being judged as citizens.

[basballguy]

(08-08-2023, 10:51 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I can all but guarantee that if they raised it to a $20K-$500K mandatory fine, along with some sanctions that could put a political careeer in jeopardy, this practice would dry up really quick.

I mean, that's the sort of penalty they would see imposed by being judged as citizens.

All this is tracked....they make a shit ton of money off these trades so it would literally need to be like a 500k fine or loss of seat.

https://www.capitoltrades.com/

[BigPapaKain]

(08-08-2023, 10:51 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I can all but guarantee that if they raised it to a $20K-$500K mandatory fine, along with some sanctions that could put a political careeer in jeopardy, this practice would dry up really quick.

I mean, that's the sort of penalty they would see imposed by being judged as citizens.

You're not wrong, but you're asking Congress to actually punish themselves, which they're not going to do anymore than you're going to follow through on your super serious New Year Resolutions.

[SunsetBengal]

(08-08-2023, 12:44 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: You're not wrong, but you're asking Congress to actually punish themselves, which they're not going to do anymore than you're going to follow through on your super serious New Year Resolutions.

I get that, and you're not even the first one to bring it up.  However, how do they get to create a separate "minor infraction" rule for themselves, when citizens are held to the insider trading level of charge and punishment?  Do they stop being citizens at the Congressional level?

[*michaelsean*]

First of all, the person from NC is terrible at insider trading, and secondly they waive a $200 fine? For realz? You can’t even pretend that much?

[samhain]

(08-08-2023, 01:18 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I get that, and you're not even the first one to bring it up.  However, how do they get to create a separate "minor infraction" rule for themselves, when citizens are held to the insider trading level of charge and punishment?  Do they stop being citizens at the Congressional level?

I've seen someone on social media compare the leniency of these punishments to the harshness of the consequences received by athletes who bet on games.  It's not apples to apples, but I think generally speaking that people get way more upset about gambling in sports.  People let the insider trading slide because it's not exciting and it fades from memory due to lack of constant exposure.  Event high level political scandal impacts these people minimally.  

At the end of the day this country is so locked in partisan tribalism that most people will literally vote for a criminal before they vote for an opponent of the other party.  It's like Bob Castellini said to Reds fans last year: "Where you gonna go?"  If Trump gets convicted on every single count, will it really cause GOP voters to pick his liberal opponent?  Will dems vote for Trump if Biden somehow gets tied up in real legal trouble?  Hell no on either count.  

Our legislators have the best gig you can possibly get.  Practically every working person in this country dreams of retirement.  You can't pry these people out of office.  They literally sit their asses in the honey hole until someone hauls their corpse out of the DC office.  

[Belsnickel]

(08-08-2023, 01:18 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I get that, and you're not even the first one to bring it up.  However, how do they get to create a separate "minor infraction" rule for themselves, when citizens are held to the insider trading level of charge and punishment?  Do they stop being citizens at the Congressional level?

They don't, much like the POTUS doesn't stop being a citizen and the Supremes don't, either. The big issue we have been seeing for the past decade, though, or at least more people are seeing the truth of it, is that they behave like the laws don't apply to them. Power corrupts and all that, right?

So, what do we do about it? How do we hold these institutions accountable when they have essentially been left be foxes in their respective hen houses? I can tell you what the Constitution says, but the other branches are hesitant to do anything lest it shine the light on them and invoke retaliatory efforts and/or an electoral backlash (because despite how much of a problem this is the majority of the voters see attempts to actually hold people accountable that they agree with as political, see the Trump indictments).

So what do we do when the Constitutional methods are seemingly unavailable because we keep reelecting the same people that are problematic?

[GMDino]

(08-09-2023, 09:00 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: They don't, much like the POTUS doesn't stop being a citizen and the Supremes don't, either. The big issue we have been seeing for the past decade, though, or at least more people are seeing the truth of it, is that they behave like the laws don't apply to them. Power corrupts and all that, right?

So, what do we do about it? How do we hold these institutions accountable when they have essentially been left be foxes in their respective hen houses? I can tell you what the Constitution says, but the other branches are hesitant to do anything lest it shine the light on them and invoke retaliatory efforts and/or an electoral backlash (because despite how much of a problem this is the majority of the voters see attempts to actually hold people accountable that they agree with as political, see the Trump indictments).

So what do we do when the Constitutional methods are seemingly unavailable because we keep reelecting the same people that are problematic?

Drain the swamp?

[SunsetBengal]

(08-09-2023, 09:00 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: They don't, much like the POTUS doesn't stop being a citizen and the Supremes don't, either. The big issue we have been seeing for the past decade, though, or at least more people are seeing the truth of it, is that they behave like the laws don't apply to them. Power corrupts and all that, right?

So, what do we do about it? How do we hold these institutions accountable when they have essentially been left be foxes in their respective hen houses? I can tell you what the Constitution says, but the other branches are hesitant to do anything lest it shine the light on them and invoke retaliatory efforts and/or an electoral backlash (because despite how much of a problem this is the majority of the voters see attempts to actually hold people accountable that they agree with as political, see the Trump indictments).

So what do we do when the Constitutional methods are seemingly unavailable because we keep reelecting the same people that are problematic?

Exactly, and the key reason I felt compelled to post this thread.  As Samhain mentioned, these aren't "salacious sounding scandals", so these transgressions are quickly accepted and forgotten about by the news media, and thus out of the public consciousness.