Rep. Suozzi (NY) Ignored House Ethics Rules and Federal Law
Washington, D.C.— June 3, 2022— Today, the non-partisan ethics watchdog, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), filed a complaint requesting the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) investigate Congressman Tom Suozzi of New York for repeatedly failing to disclose financial transactions as required by the STOCK Act.
Federal law and House Ethics rules require Members to provide “full and complete” financial information to the public, including a Member’s assets, debts, income, and periodic reports of financial transactions that exceed $1,000 within 30 to 45 days of the transaction.
Rep. Suozzi has yet again failed to properly disclose stock trades. In May 2022, he disclosed 10 stock trades valued up to $515,000, which included companies such as computer technology company NVIDIA Corporation, aerospace and defense company Boeing Co., and automaker General Motors. The disclosures were over a month late and involved companies subject to Congressional legislation or oversight. Rep. Suozzi has repeatedly failed to make timely disclosures in the past. In March 2022, Rep. Suozzi failed to timely disclose 31 stock trades valued up to $885,000, which were reported in the range of several months to four years late.
“There is no excuse for violating this law even one time, but this is an egregious case. This was not an inadvertent error or omission, but rather Representative Suozzi’s knowledge of the law and his repeated failure to comply with it demonstrates knowing and willful violations. In fact, his spokesperson acknowledged his most recent late filing by simply brushing it off and stating, 'the required $200 fine will be paid.' However, Suozzi should have already paid a fine greater than $200. A report is deemed legally insufficient and not properly filed if the fine is not paid with the late report and the fine for multiple offenses is more than $200. Moreover, a fine does not remedy the breach of the ethics rules for a Member consistently not following the law,” said Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of FACT.
A full copy of the complaint can be found here.
FACT is a nonprofit organization to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas. For more on FACT, visit: http://www.factdc.org/
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