End Citizens United filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics today against Rep. John James (MI-10) for violating the STOCK Act by failing to properly disclose 145 stock trades and failing to file his financial disclosure statement on time.
“Rep. James kept the public in the dark on millions of dollars of stock trades and his own personal finances and must be held accountable,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “His blatant disregard for the law, which he is clearly well aware of, is unacceptable and shows he cannot be trusted.”
The violations:
- The STOCK Act requires Members of Congress to disclose certain securities transactions made by themselves, their spouse, or their dependent children that exceed $1,000 on periodic transaction reports (PTRs).
- Importantly, the law requires filers to disclose those transactions “not later than 30 days after receiving notification of any transaction . . . but in no case later than 45 days after such transaction.”
- On September 2, 2024, Representative James filed a 22-page PTR disclosing transactions that occurred as far back as November 10, 2023. This PTR appears to contain 145 separate stock transactions – valued at up to $2.2 million – that were disclosed well after 45 days from the date of the transaction.
- Some of the transactions are as many as 252 days late – depriving the public of their ability to determine whether he engaged in activity that could constitute a conflict of interest for over eight months.
- Instead of filing timely PTRs disclosing these transactions, Rep. James kept the public in the dark about his extensive financial activity until well after the applicable deadlines.
- Representative James’ apparent refusal to timely disclose up to $2.2 million in financial activity is an outrageous violation of the STOCK Act and a gross obfuscation of his financial disclosure obligations.
- Rep. James also appears to have recently filed his annual financial disclosure statement late.
- On April 18, 2024, Rep. James requested a 90-day extension to file his financial disclosure statement for calendar year 2023. The Committee granted that extension and noted that his new due date was August 13, 2024.
- Rep. James waited until September 3, 2024 – nearly three weeks after his already-extended deadline – to finally file his annual financial disclosure statement.
- Whether this decision was intentional or not, Rep. James again left the public in the dark about his finances for weeks beyond the statutory deadline.
- The complaint requests that the Office of Congressional Ethics immediately opens a preliminary review to investigate Rep. James’ apparent failure to file timely periodic transaction reports and his annual financial disclosure statement and take all necessary steps to seek appropriate penalties and corrective action.
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