Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., may have violated a federal transparency law by delaying disclosure of an investment in a Chinese technology firm, according to a Fox Business report.
According to the most recent periodic transaction record (PTR) published this week, the first-term senator exercised a stock option relating to an investment in Boom Technology Inc. That transaction took place April 13, yet Kelly did not report it for several months.
This is a violation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012, according to the report.
The STOCK Act was passed with strong bipartisan support under the Obama administration in response to allegations of insider trading by legislators. The STOCK Act makes it illegal for lawmakers to engage in insider trading and requires that they disclose the purchase of any stock larger than $1,000 between 30 to 45 days.
Kelly appears to have failed to disclose his investment in Boom Technologies within the required 45-days, the report indicates.
According to a review of Kelly's transaction by Fox News, the senator filed his PTR on Aug. 16, outside of the 45-day deadline required by law. The amount disclosed by Kelly was between $1,001 and $15,000. A violation of the STOCK Act could trigger an investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics and a fine for an amount determined by the committee.
Kelly, who is up for reelection in the 2022 midterms, served on the advisory board of Boom Technology, a Colorado company, from 2015 to 2019. The Washington Free Beacon reported last year that Boom Technology partnered with a Chinese travel company, Trip.com Group Unlimited, in 2018 to "bring supersonic flight to China."
Trip.com, formerly known as Ctrip, has been part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure funding concept for developing nations described by some as a ploy by the communist nation to make them dependent or beholden to China.
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