July 19, 2021
“A nonprofit watchdog is filing an ethics complaint on Monday against former Rep. Harley Rouda, a California Democrat, after an Insider report showed he was almost a year late in disclosing up to $45,000 in Amazon and Tesla stocks.
“The complaint, filed by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, asks the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate Rouda, noting that he has been tardy in filing his stock trades before and was issued a fine as a result…
“…Rouda disclosed in May that almost a year earlier his wife had purchased up to $15,000 worth of Amazon stock, then sold the same amount’s worth of Amazon shares a week later. She also sold up to $15,000 in Tesla stock in June 2020.
“Under the federal STOCK Act, lawmakers are required to report their trades within 30 to 45 days after the transactions happen, depending on the type of trade. Rouda was still in Congress when the trades occurred, meaning his latest filing is about 11 months late.
“Kendra Arnold, the executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, told Insider the congressional ethics office should investigate the case and impose fines or penalties if Rouda violated federal law. She said timely disclosures were important so citizens could monitor whether elected officials faced conflicts of interest or were wrongly profiting from information they were able to uncover as a member of Congress.”
Read the rest here.
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