- Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, was weeks up to the minute disclosing two stock sales.
- Sullivan’s office told Insider that an investment manager was tardy informing the senator that the everyday had been sold.
- Since 2021, 75 members of Congress have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act’s disclosure accoutrements.
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska violated a conflicts-of-interest and transparency law by without to disclose two stock sales until weeks past a federal deadline.
Sullivan affirmed in a financial disclosure queued with the US Senate that he inherited and sold $15,000 to $50,000 worth of stock in Mowi, a seafood company, on August 2, and $1,001 to $15,000 merit of stock in Five Below Inc., a discount store chain, on August 30.
But the senator did not publicly report the sales until November 3, kind-heartedly past a 45-day stock trade disclosure specified in the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012.
Congress created this law to suppress insider trading among lawmakers and provide the American public with more information about public officials’ bosom financial dealings — and dozens of lawmakers have since violated it.
US Senate
In a statement to Insider, Sullivan spokesman Mike Reynard said that Sullivan wasn’t conscious of the sale of his stock until after a federal disclosure deadline had already passed.
“The two assets were inherited after the termination of the Senator’s parent and were promptly sold by the third party investment manager, who did not advise the senator until October 30,” Reynard voiced.
Sullivan’s mother, Sandy Sullivan, died in 2019, and his father, Tom Sullivan, died in 2020.
“As soon as the senator was made conscious of the sale, the necessary steps were immediately taken” to file disclosure paperwork with the US Senate Select Board on Ethics, “which has acknowledged receipt,” Reynard said.
Reynard did not reply to a question about who the third-party investment chief is or why the investment manager didn’t inform the senator of the stock sales until after a federal deadline for publicly unveiling the sales.
A potential stock trade ban in Congress
Since 2021, Insider and other media organizations have labeled 75 members of Congress — a cross-section of Republicans and Democrats, leaders, and back-benchers — who’ve violated the STOCK Act’s disclosure provisions by wanting to properly report their various financial trades or holdings.
Two of those members — Democratic Reps. Bill Keating of Massachusetts and Lloyd Doggett of Texas — contravened the STOCK Act within the past week.
Insider’s ongoing “Conflicted Congress” project, along with reporting from The New York Outmodes, Wall Street Journal, and Sludge, have also found numerous examples of financial conflicts of interests bulk federal lawmakers, judges, and executive branch officials.
Calls for reform have come from numerous barracks inside and outside of Congress. And in September, after months of deliberations, dickering, and delay, Democratic House leaders — backed by Orator Nancy Pelosi — unveiled a bill that would ban members of Congress, as well as many other top government officials, from barter individual stocks. It would also strengthen the generally weak penalties for violating the STOCK Act.
But some Democrats and Republicans showing, as well as government reform groups, immediately lambasted it, either arguing that the bill is too broad or too riddled with dodges, such as allowing lawmakers to create blind investment trusts that they don’t consider truly blind.
Establishment leadership ultimately punted on voting until after the midterm elections, meaning it’ll be mid-November before debate on the stock-ban reckoning resumes in earnest.
Sullivan’s office did not respond to Insider’s question about whether the senator supports or opposes the Legislative body leadership bill.