On Monday, February 7th, a major ethics complaint was filed against a Democratic Rep. after he failed to properly disclose a substantial stock transfer received by his wife for her position at a Colorado-based financial technology company.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is facing an ethics complaint after he failed to properly declare the shares that his wife, who also happens to be Joe Biden‘s pick for the Federal Reserve’s top banking regular position, received.
According to reporting by The Raging Patriot, “The scrutiny comes at a critical time for Sarah Bloom Raskin, who was formally nominated by Biden to serve as the Federal Reserve’s vice chairwoman for supervision last month. As vice chair for supervision, Sarah Bloom Raskin, a Duke University law professor who has held high-level roles at both the Treasury Department and the Fed, would oversee yearly stress tests that analyze bank soundness and liquidity.”
The American Accountability Foundation has filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics alleging that Raskin violated federal financial disclosure reporting requirements when he neglected to report the substantial stock transfer that his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, received in December of 2020.
Rep. Raskin waited until August of 2021, eight months after his wife sold the 195,936 shares of Reserve Trust for $1.5 million, to disclose the transaction, according to a federal financial disclosure.
“Sarah and Jamie Raskin are career politicians who have used the system to enrich themselves, and it is time that someone holds them accountable,” Tom Jones, the founder of the American Accountability Foundation, said in a statement to FOX Business.
“If House rules are going to mean anything, the House Ethics Committee needs to open an investigation and sanction Jamie Raskin for hiding this shady stock deal from the public,” he added.
While the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (or STOCK Act) makes it illegal for members of Congress and their families to gain from insider information and requires lawmakers to declare stock trades to Congress within 45 days, legislators and their spouses are allowed to invest in companies or industries that the lawmakers may help regulate.
Because Rep. Raskin didn’t promptly disclose the shares sold by his wife, he violated the Stock Act.
He has acknowledged the late filing, but is blaming the omission on the death of the couple’s 25 year old son, Thomas, which took place on December 31, 2020.
The American Accountability Foundation’s complaint did acknowledge that the Raskins had lost their son during that time period and should be “given some leeway in meeting filing requirements,” it also noted that the congressman wasn’t too distracted to return to his official duties as as the leader of the impeachment charge against Trump in the same time period.
