Fed governor divesting stock bought by spouse in violation of trading rules

By Michael S. Derby

(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler, the newest of the U.S. central bank's seven board members, has run afoul of new ethics rules governing how officials and their families can trade and invest after her spouse bought stock in Apple and another company without her knowledge this summer.

In a government filing dated Oct. 24, Kugler reported the planned divestiture of Apple and Cava Group shares purchased by her spouse. Fed ethics rules sharply limit how the central bank's officials and senior staff can invest their personal funds and require trading to be pre-cleared by central bank ethics officials. Those rules also cover spouses and minor children of top Fed staff.

The purchases "were carried out by my spouse, without my knowledge, and I affirm that my spouse did not intend to violate any rules," Kugler said in the financial disclosure form. "Upon learning about the purchases, I immediately notified ethics officials, and at their direction, I initiated divestiture of these assets as soon as possible under (Federal Open Market Committee) ethics policies."

The four sets of stock purchases happened over the summer, and each purchase amount ranged between $1,001 and $15,000.

In a statement, a Fed spokesperson said "we can confirm that (Kugler) did alert the ethics office and acted at their direction, and in accordance with our policies."

The current Fed ethics rules were put in place in early 2022 after a series of controversies over the personal investing activities of some policymakers.

The first involved the investing activities of the heads of the Fed's regional banks in Boston and Dallas, and both left their posts in the fall of 2021. In a report early this year, the Fed's Office of Inspector General, its in-house watchdog, rapped the two regional Fed bank chiefs for creating the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and former Vice Chair Richard Clarida were cleared of wrongdoing by the watchdog.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic has also faced trouble over his personal investing. In September, the Fed watchdog said Bostic had broken rules then in place and had created the appearance that he acted on confidential information and the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Bostic had traded in periods that were off limits, but the watchdog also found no evidence he had used confidential Fed information to govern his investing. The finding on Bostic is widely believed to be the final report on Fed officials' trading.

The process of tightening up loose ends around the new ethics system and ensuring compliance is ongoing. At the start of this month, the OIG flagged a range of work the central bank is still engaged in, including ways to ensure the accuracy of disclosures.

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Paul Simao)