The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 is designed to curb insider trading and requires timely disclosure of financial trades.
By Madison Hall, Insider
Seventy-seven members of the 117th session of Congress violated a federal conflicts-of-interest and financial disclosure law, according to a review of congressional financial disclosures by Insider and other news outlets.
The law — the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, also known as the STOCK Act — passed in 2012 under President Barack Obama following insider trading scandals that rocked Congress. The STOCK Act notably requires members of Congress to report trades they made, or made by their spouses or dependent children, within 45 days or risk a financial slap on the wrist — the standard penalty for such a violation is $200.
But a decade on, Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike routinely violate the STOCK Act: 40 Republicans and 37 Democrats in the current Congress violated the law, per Insider’s tally.
Some members of Congress violated the law more egregiously than others. GOP Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas, for example, violated the STOCK Act multiple times and waited months to disclose up to $17 million in trades. Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York repeatedly failed to file reports on time across nearly 300 personal financial transactions.
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