Two nonprofit watchdog organizations filed separate ethics complaints against Rep. Tom Malinowski, a New Jersey Democrat, following a report that he failed to disclose more than half a million dollars in dozens of stock trades.
The two groups, Campaign Legal Center and the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate Malinowski. His office has denied any nefarious intent, characterizing it as an “oversight.”
The two-term congressman failed to disclose dozens of personal stock trades worth anywhere from $671,000 to $2.76 million, Business Insider reported last week. The numbers are not precise because members of Congress are required to report the value of their stock assets in broad ranges.
“Although his office acknowledged it was an ‘oversight,’ it is also a violation of the law that must have consequences. The disclosure requirement our elected officials must abide by are an integral part of an ethical and transparent government,” the letter from FACT on March 5 stated.
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Similarly, the Campaign Legal Center’s letter called for the investigation because the STOCK Act “will not accomplish its intended purpose, which is to provide more disclosure of congressional stock trading and combat insider trading.”
“Filing these disclosures late was an oversight that he is taking steps to correct,” Colston Reid, Malinowski’s chief of staff, told Business Insider. Spokeswoman Amanda Osbourne added, “This was not an effort on the part of the congressman to conceal any trade activities.”
Many of the stock deals that weren’t reported were made around the beginning of the pandemic and included decisions regarding companies tangentially related to COVID-19. Malinowski invested $100,000 in cereal maker General Mills, up to $50,00 in the J.M. Smucker Company that makes nonperishable foods, including peanut butter, fruit spreads, and packaged snacks, and sold up to $15,000 worth of stock in an infectious disease testing company, Chembio Diagnostics, which offers COVID-19 tests. He also purchased up to $50,000 worth of shares in Peloton, the company that makes the stationary bikes that have become even more popular since gyms closed amid the pandemic.
“It appears Malinowski was secretly trading stocks related to a national crisis, which prevented the public from evaluating whether his transactions were based upon information he obtained from his official position,” the letter from FACT added.
Osbourne said the congressman did not make his own trades but instead “has a financial adviser that makes trading decisions on his behalf without his regular input.”
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Malinowski is “committed to full transparency with the public,” Reid said. “In the absence of any such requirements, congressman Malinowski is currently taking steps to establish a blind trust for himself.”
Malinowski is not the only lawmaker who has failed to disclose stock decisions in recent years. Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler and current Sens. James Inhofe, Dianne Feinstein, and Richard Burr faced similar scrutiny and Justice Department investigations last year.
