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BLOCKBUSTER report of a huge potential conflict by Pence& #39;s chief of staff, Marc Short. FBI must investigate this! Short& #39;s leading the office running the coronavirus task force. He also holds major investments in companies affected by the pandemic response. https://www.npr.org/2020/05/28/860927054/pence-chief-of-staff-owns-stocks-that-could-conflict-with-coronavirus-response?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=business">https://www.npr.org/2020/05/2...
. @CREWcrew first uncovered this issue and alerted the reporter. Here& #39;s our piece from April describing the issue. We knew Short had not reported selling the stocks. NPR& #39;s Tim Mak then was able to confirm that Short retained them!! https://www.citizensforethics.org/marc-short-coronvirus-stocks-conflict-of-interest/">https://www.citizensforethics.org/marc-shor...
At issue is a criminal conflict of interest statute that prohibits participation in any particular matter affecting companies in which you hold stock, and Short holds a lot of stocks. (It& #39;s insane how many.) It is hard to imagine how he could legally do much of his job.
Tim Mak found out something really big: The VP& #39;s office tried to get OGE to give Short a Certificate of Divestiture, which grants a tax break for selling conflicting assets. YOU CAN ONLY SEEK A CERTIFICATE OF DIVESTITURE WHEN YOUR OFFICE SAYS A STOCK IS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST!
That means we have what amounts to an admission by the government that he holds stocks that pose conflicts of interest and, under the regulation, it is "reasonably necessary" to sell them. That& #39;s HUGE! You rarely get that kind of admission. You have it in this case.
Mak reports that OGE denied a CD (i.e., the tax break) because Short wouldn& #39;t be selling off all of the stocks. He doesn& #39;t appear to have sold those he could sell. That& #39;s a problem. The regs require a person seeking a CD to promise to divest whether OGE issues a CD or not!
It sure seems like he decided that, if Uncle Sam wouldn& #39;t give him a tax break, he wouldn& #39;t sell his stocks. Can you imagine being such a spoiled rich guy that having to pay the low capital gains tax rate is more important than eliminating the risk of conflicts of interest?
The plan for managing his conflicts of interest was to simply recuse from every last particular matter affecting his financial interests. Hard to imagine how that could work for the guy whose job was to set the agenda for coronavirus task force meetings! FBI must investigate!
