One-third of the 90 top officials of the Federal Trade Commission owned or traded stocks in companies the agency has overseen between 2016 and 2021, mostly tech firms, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to a review by The Journal of actions made public by the agency, FTC officials owned stock in 22 of about 60 large companies that were brought before the agency for review during the five-year period
Technology firms have been under more scrutiny in recent years, and almost one-fourth of the FTC's top officials either owned or traded stocks in such tech firms as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Oracle, according to the report.
One FTC chairman owned Microsoft, Oracle and AT&T during the time that sensitive reviews that affected the tech and telecom sectors were being conducted, according to The Journal.
And while his office was working with overseas officials on a probe involving Facebook, the head of the agency's internal division bought and sold stock in the company through a financial adviser.
Although federal employees are barred by law from involvement on policy matters in which they hold a significant financial stake, the FTC officials did not break any laws, according to The Journal. That's because there are exemptions for officials to own stocks that overlap with the work of their agencies.
Employees can invest up to $15,000 in an individual stock or up to $50,000 in an industry-specific mutual fund and still comply with the regulations.
A spokesman for the FTC told The Journal that agency officials complied with the law, adding that the agency has a "robust ethics program" that follows all rules set by Congress and the Office of Government Ethics.
Officials are instructed on how to follow the rules, but the spokesman said, "Ultimately, it is the filer's obligation to comply with the rules."
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