Factbox: Vivek Murthy and other Biden nominees’ ethics pledges on cryptocurrencies, university and company ties

- ADVERTISEMENT -

WASHINGTON – Several of President Joe Biden’s nominees to head key U.S. agencies are selling stock holdings and pledging to seek ethics waivers if they have to oversee matters in which they have had personal interests, according to new filings with the Office of Government Ethics.

Biden has asked federal employees to sign stepped-up ethics pledges, and said no family members will work in the White House. Multiple conflicts of interest emerged in the previous administration of Donald Trump.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week obtained a waiver from Treasury ethics lawyers before gathering top financial regulators to study price volatility in GameStop Corp and other stocks.

Yellen had received $700,000 in speaking fees from Citadel LLC, a hedge fund at the center of the retail stock frenzy and had pledged here to seek permission to deal with matters directly involving the company.

GARY GENSLER’S, SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION NOMINEE

Biden’s nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may seek an ethics waiver to participate in cryptocurrency matters if they affect his royalty payments from an online course he created on the subject at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gensler, who has advocated for stronger regulation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, pledged in his ethics letter here to resign from an MIT economics professorship but will continue to receive royalties associated with his ownership of intellectual property in the MIT Media Lab Cryptocurrency Online Course.

Gensler said he “will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter that to my knowledge has a direct and predictable effect on any royalty and/or other rights resulting from my intellectual property interest unless I first obtain a written waiver.”

The $2,600 MIT Media Lab online course here advertises that it helps participants understand crypto currencies, including bitcoin, ethereum and the MIT-developed Vault.

Bitcoin surged 16% on Monday after billionaire Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla revealed it had bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency and would soon accept it as a form of payment for cars.

Gensler also pledged to resign from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York FinTech Advisory Group and a number of family investment trusts.

WILLIAM BURNS, CIA DIRECTOR NOMINEE

William Burns, the career diplomat chosen to run the Central Intelligence Agency, has pledged to resign his position as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and give up board directorships for International Paper Corp, Macro Advisory Partners and Makena Capital Management LLC. He also will resign as an advisory board member for Allianz and pledged in his ethics letter here to not participate personally and substantially in any matters involving these entities for a year without prior authorization.

He said he will liquidate his vested restricted stock holdings in International Paper and forfeit any unvested restricted stock.

Burns also will not participate personally and substantially in any matter involving the United Nations, where his wife, Lisa Carty, is employed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs without prior authorization.

SAMANTHA POWER, USAID ADMINISTRATOR NOMINEE

Biden’s choice to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said in disclosures she would take a two-year unpaid leave of absence from her position as a professor at Harvard University, where she earned $470,000 in salary and research stipends.

She pledged in her ethics letter here not to personally or substantially participate in matters that may have direct and predictable effects on Harvard’s financial interests without a written waiver. She also pledged to seek a waiver on matters involving parties including or represented by Harvard, for as long as her husband, Professor Cass Sunstein, is employed by the university.

Power also said she would divest her interests in drugmaker Johnson & Johnson Co, no later than 90 days after she is confirmed. In a separate financial disclosure here she said these shares were valued at between $15,001 and $50,000.

VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE

Vivek Murthy, tapped to reprise his role as surgeon general in the later years of the Obama administration, pledged to resign his position with medical device companies SVN Med LLC and L&N Baby, The Behavioral Health Group, media agency Attention, and various boards, including the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

He agreed in his ethics letter here to not personally participate in matters involving these entities without first seeking prior authorization from Department of Health and Human Services ethics attorneys.

In a separate financial disclosure, Murthy said he was paid more than $1.6 million in consulting fees from Netflix Inc, Airbnb Inc, Carnival Corp and Estee Lauder Companies Inc. He also received stock from Airbnb.

Murthy said in his ethics letter he would sell the Airbnb shares within 90 days of his confirmation, as well as his shares in companies including Apple Inc, Broadcom Inc, Colgate-Palmolive Co, CVS Health, Goldman Sachs and Starbucks.