A former Obama administration appointee for undersecretary of the Treasury currently serving as Treasury advisor made millions buying and selling securities in his first year on the job.
Antonio Weiss, once a senior level investment banker at Lazard, was nominated for undersecretary of the Treasury by President Barack Obama in 2014. At that time, Weiss was the global head of investment banking at Lazard, a position that paid $15.4 million in just under two years. Weiss’s appointment was derailed by a cacophony of outcry from the left, led by Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Antonio Weiss lacks the background & experience to oversee consumer protection at the Treasury. Enough is enough. http://t.co/128vzSr2B8
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 20, 2014
After a failed attempt at getting his appointment through the Senate, Weiss was nominated and confirmed as a counselor to the Department of the Treasury in January, 2015. As Counselor to the Treasury Secretary, Weiss “advises the Secretary on a broad range of domestic and international issues related to financial markets, regulatory reform, job creation, consumer finance, government lending practices, and broad-based economic growth.”
From the time of his appointment to the end of 2015, Weiss traded somewhere between $43 million and $156 million in securities, according to documents released by the Washington Free Beacon. Because appointees for federal positions are only required to disclose the range of the value of assets they buy and sell, the documents simply note the value of traded assets ranging from $1,000 to $5 million.
While the majority of trades were indexed funds, a type of mutual fund packaged to match or track the moves of a market index (like the Dow), Weiss also dabbled in private equity and other funds.
Financial lawyers warn that “privileged investors, often aided by political intelligence consultants, can profit substantially from their access to knowledgeable sources inside the government.” As a direct advisor to the secretary of the Treasury and as a well-connected member of the investment community, Weiss assuredly had greater access than others to inside information about government policies and agendas.
Some experts who reviewed the documents say that Weiss traded in full compliance with financial disclosure laws and that his trades were carried out legally, Free Beacon reports. Others say that Weiss’s trading activity likely raises red flags, even if the trades were conducted in full compliance with federal ethics rules.
Send tips to robert@dailycallernewsfoundation.org
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.