WASHINGTON – When Representative Tom Sokuzi (DN.Y) sold a part of his personal holders two days before President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” ads in April, practical It seems that there is another routine financial step for someone in Congress itself once Investigation For mysterious trading habits often.
But the sale of Suozzi on March 31, at a value of $ 50,000 from the shares of Global Industrial Co. Note what it is: Congress member publicly did not disclose the possession of stocks, which prompted the issue of how the federal legislator can sell security he does not seem to own in the first place.
Answer? Suozzi simply did not reveal his industrial global stock, which he obtained more than two years ago, due to a clear loophole in federal law – a loophole recently closed by the conference to address stock positions specifically such as suozzi, according to A. luck Review documents and federal interviews with government officials.
The mysterious stock trade of Suozzzi comes at a time when the coalition of the two parties in Congress raises federal lawmakers from trading the stocks completely. They cite what they are It is considered violations For the financial disclosure law known as trading in the law of knowledge in Congress. Suozzi violated the shares law disclosure item on four different occasions earlier in this contract, according to media reports.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson (R does), the leader of the minority of the House of Representatives Hakim Jeffrez (Dn.y.) and even the president Donald Trump I provided support, in principle, for Congress Ban stock trade.
Tell the Congress office in Suzy luck The Congress member committed something wrong by not reporting the ownership of his global industrial shares, on the pretext that he followed the rules of Congress applied to him when he made the latest mandatory financial disclosures in 2024.
“Congressing member Suzy has completely complied with the rules luck.
The last arrow epic began in Suozzi in June 2023.
In that month, according to Records of the Securities and Stock Exchange CommitteeSuozzzi received $ 50,000 from restricted and invested shares at Global Industrial Co. While he was a “non -management manager” of the company after leaving Congress earlier that year after a A failed campaign for the ruler From New York.
Later that year, Sokuzi decided to run in special elections for the seat of the third Congress in New York, which was evacuated by Representative George Santos (RN.Y) after the House of Representatives eviction He is among a group of federal criminal charges that was later CSENTERD to more than seven years in prisoners.
When Sukuzi presented a mandatory report of the financial candidate for the mandatory candidate January 12, 2024He did not reveal his shares in Global Industries Co. The company markets industrial products and repair them through various e -commerce sites. It was also not revealed in two subsequent financial disclosures, in August and September In 2024, after winning his seat in Congress in February 2024, the three financial disclosures were applied to Swazzi’s personal financial activity during 2023.
Farid explained that the shares of suozzi’s Global Industries “did not have any value” when Suozzi presented the personal financial disclosure in January 2024. The House of Representatives for Financial Ethics at that time Farid said that he did not specifically address the property of non -invested stocks, so Sukozi did not reveal his stock in the field of global industries.
However, suozzi’s Global Industries Co. The constitutional oath To Congress on February 28, 2024, Farid said.
Farid said that the share of Global Industries Co. “It will be reflected” when Suozzi reveals his 2024 personal financial activity in a document that must be presented by August 2025. In May, Suozzi request, and receiving, a Extension 90 days To present it, Farid said.
When the Ethics Council was issued in the House of Representatives The updated dates of the disclosure earlier this yearA new language included directly to the type of situation that Sukozi finds himself in, although he does not seem to apply to members of Congress retrospectively.
“You have to reveal you, your wife, or children who are involved in your participation in the restricted stock plan if the stock value is more than $ 1,000 at the end of the reports period or got more than $ 200 of income during the reporting period,” says the House of Representatives. “Providing the name of the non -invested stocks (acquired shares should be detected on a separate line component), value, type of income and amount.”
Tom Rost, chief adviser to the Ethics Committee in the House of Representatives, refused to comment.
“These requirements are important because they are the only kind of moral commitment that Congress members were ready to impose on themselves,” said Walter Schop, the former director of the US government ethics office. “If they have finally passed the ban on the long stock trade to support the moral principle of the artistic textures of avoiding conflicts of interests, they will not have to worry about these disclosures.”
In 2021, NPR I mentioned – Quoting research from the Campaign Legal Center, which is a non -partisan surveillance group – Suozzi failed properly to detect about 300 financial transactions.
Separately, Business Insider stated that suozzi – on three different occasions in He walksand maybe and December From 2022 – The stock law was violated by waiting for months or years on the Federal Federal deadline to reveal dozens of additional stock deals.
“Frankly, we have a lot in Congress. I have a lot of other things that happen. It is not only – this is a great priority for me. But – some formal procedures are not necessarily something that I serve,” He said Independent Office for Congress Ethics in 2022 during investigation One of the stock trading practices, noting that the financial advisor directed his trading.
Congress Ethics Council office unanimously Referred Sukozi to the Parliament’s Ethics Committee, where he wrote that there is a “great reason for belief” that Suozzi has failed properly to reveal hundreds of personal stock deals.
However conclude In July 2022, there was no “clear evidence” that Suozzi committed a violation of “knowledge or deliberate” of the stock law. The committee refused to punish him.
During his second work as a member of Congress, suozzi is a member From the House of Representatives Committee on Roads and Means, responsible for writing taxes, increasing revenues and other basic government financial jobs. He sits in the sub -committee for supervision and taxes, as well.
Sukozi Chief of Staff said that Suzy supports The two parties restore faith in the government law for the year 2025One of numerous Waiting for bills that, if approved, will prohibit or limit the members of Congress from the trading of individual stocks.
On May 5, it became Suozzi Participant From the draft law, which is also sponsored by 10 other ideologically diversified two other legislators ranging from actors Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) to Alexandria Okasio Cortez (DN.Y.).
When Suozzzi sold its global industrial shares on March 31, it was traded by $ 22 per share – a decrease from about 27 dollars per share when it got it in June 2023.
It is the only stock trade that Suozzzi has achieved this year after reporting only a handful of a handful last year.
Farid said: “Congress, a member of the Congress, has explained not to buy or sell shares since his new term began in January,” Farid said. “This was his only trade.
Dave Leifena He is a Washington -based investigation journalist. Dave previously worked as the editor -in -chief of Raw Story, Deputy Editor -in -Chief of Business Insider, correspondent or correspondent at the Public Integrity Center, Politico, OpenSecrets and Dallas Morning News. It was also written for The Atlantic, Time, Rolling Stone, Columbia Review, The Daily Beast, Notus and Ankler.
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