https://occupythefed.substack.com/p/fed-scandal-bigger-than-watergate
The Biden administration chose to reward corruption at the highest level of government by renominating Jerome H. Powell to Chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Next week, the U.S. Senate wants to rush a vote to bless corruption and confirm Powell in that powerful role. But reinstalling Powell as Fed Chair, after he presided over and is directly implicated in the biggest government official stock trading scandal ever, will be a permanent stain on American history — a national disgrace from which our country and its real economy will never recover.
Fed Chair Powell — who is supposed to serve in the public interest and avoid even the appearance of conflicts — traded millions in personal stocks and bonds while obstructing required public disclosures about those trades for years. Yet, the information that has slipped out is damning. It shows Powell made trades *DURING* the restricted blackout period for pivotal Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings. This is a shocking revelation and constitutes grave and inexcusable misconduct by a high-ranking U.S. government official.
Moreover, Powell directed policy decisions that directly advantaged his personal bond holdings despite longstanding federal conflicts of interest law, 18 U.S.C. § 208. And then he apparently told a brazen lie about it to the press by suggesting the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) said his holdings posed no conflict. FOIA requests confirm that OGE provided no such guidance in writing.
Since being nominated to a seat on the Fed Board in 2012, Powell has been required to publicly disclose the amount ranges and specific dates (“month, day, year”) for personal trade transactions on OGE Form 278e.1 He has materially failed to comply with the required disclosures. Instead of providing specific dates for the majority of his transactions, Powell improperly groups trades of like securities behind the phrase “Multiple” on every OGE form he has filed.
Ex-Fed Regional Bank President Robert Kaplan — who retired early in disgrace after getting caught trading millions and even trying to time the market with S&P futures — employed the same scheme to obstruct public disclosure of trade dates. Journalists who have pursued long overdue disclosure of trade details have been stonewalled to date.2 Even demands for trading details by sitting members of the Senate Banking Committee that oversees the Fed have been ignored by Chair Powell for months.3
The limited information we actually have still paints a deeply disturbing picture. For example, take Powell’s disclosure for 2015 - a pivotal year when the Fed was considering policy normalization after the GFC. Powell recorded _57_ separate transaction entries.4 But 34 of the entries obstruct disclosure of dates through use of the “Multiple” artifice. That means Powell must have executed more than NINETY (90) separate trades in just one year, all while sitting on the Fed Board with unfettered access to highly material non-public financial information.
Worse still, a significant number of trades were executed during the restricted blackout period leading up to and through the final day of FOMC meetings. Ironically, when the trading scandal broke, a Fed PR spokesperson touted that Fed officials like Powell are subject to stricter restrictions like no trading during the FOMC blackout period — “10 days ahead of policy meetings through midnight of the final meeting day.”5 Yet, Powell had at least 6 sales transactions and 1 purchase on April 29, 2015 — the day of the final FOMC meeting.6 He also made 2 purchases on December 11, 2015 — 3 days before the FOMC’s December 15-16, 2015 meetings.
https://occupythefed.substack.com/p/fed-scandal-bigger-than-watergate
The Biden administration chose to reward corruption at the highest level of government by renominating Jerome H. Powell to Chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Next week, the U.S. Senate wants to rush a vote to bless corruption and confirm Powell in that powerful role. But reinstalling Powell as Fed Chair, after he presided over and is directly implicated in the biggest government official stock trading scandal ever, will be a permanent stain on American history — a national disgrace from which our country and its real economy will never recover.
Fed Chair Powell — who is supposed to serve in the public interest and avoid even the appearance of conflicts — traded millions in personal stocks and bonds while obstructing required public disclosures about those trades for years. Yet, the information that has slipped out is damning. It shows Powell made trades *DURING* the restricted blackout period for pivotal Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings. This is a shocking revelation and constitutes grave and inexcusable misconduct by a high-ranking U.S. government official.
Moreover, Powell directed policy decisions that directly advantaged his personal bond holdings despite longstanding federal conflicts of interest law, 18 U.S.C. § 208. And then he apparently told a brazen lie about it to the press by suggesting the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) said his holdings posed no conflict. FOIA requests confirm that OGE provided no such guidance in writing.
Since being nominated to a seat on the Fed Board in 2012, Powell has been required to publicly disclose the amount ranges and specific dates (“month, day, year”) for personal trade transactions on OGE Form 278e.1 He has materially failed to comply with the required disclosures. Instead of providing specific dates for the majority of his transactions, Powell improperly groups trades of like securities behind the phrase “Multiple” on every OGE form he has filed.
Ex-Fed Regional Bank President Robert Kaplan — who retired early in disgrace after getting caught trading millions and even trying to time the market with S&P futures — employed the same scheme to obstruct public disclosure of trade dates. Journalists who have pursued long overdue disclosure of trade details have been stonewalled to date.2 Even demands for trading details by sitting members of the Senate Banking Committee that oversees the Fed have been ignored by Chair Powell for months.3
The limited information we actually have still paints a deeply disturbing picture. For example, take Powell’s disclosure for 2015 - a pivotal year when the Fed was considering policy normalization after the GFC. Powell recorded _57_ separate transaction entries.4 But 34 of the entries obstruct disclosure of dates through use of the “Multiple” artifice. That means Powell must have executed more than NINETY (90) separate trades in just one year, all while sitting on the Fed Board with unfettered access to highly material non-public financial information.
Worse still, a significant number of trades were executed during the restricted blackout period leading up to and through the final day of FOMC meetings. Ironically, when the trading scandal broke, a Fed PR spokesperson touted that Fed officials like Powell are subject to stricter restrictions like no trading during the FOMC blackout period — “10 days ahead of policy meetings through midnight of the final meeting day.”5 Yet, Powell had at least 6 sales transactions and 1 purchase on April 29, 2015 — the day of the final FOMC meeting.6 He also made 2 purchases on December 11, 2015 — 3 days before the FOMC’s December 15-16, 2015 meetings.
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