Former Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Beaudreau violated ethics laws by not properly monitoring financial investments or recusing himself in a conflict of interest, the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) watchdog found in a report published Tuesday.
Beaudreau, who departed the Biden administration for the private sector last October, reportedly violated the federal conflict of interest statute in a June 14, 2023, meeting reviewing the Trump-era Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s rules around industry standards for oil, gas, and sulfur wells in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. During this period, he knowingly owned ExxonMobil and Chevron stock, although OIG said they were purchased on his behalf without his authorization and he sold them soon after.
The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) determined this violated a federal statute under which an executive branch employee cannot “personally and substantially” participate in a matter which may have a “direct and predictable effect” on their financial interests.
“Beaudreau neither sought nor received a written waiver from the [Designated Agency Ethics Official] that would have allowed him to own ExxonMobil and Chevron stock notwithstanding their inclusion on the List of Prohibited Investments,” the report states.
The OIG also determined that Beaudreau did not comply with the ethics agreement he signed upon confirmation, which required that he ensure the managers for any of his financial investments get his case-by-case approval for any asset purchases. While Beaudreau told his portfolio manager about the restrictions he had agreed to, he told OIG investigators that he had not regularly reviewed his monthly account statements from his brokerage firm.
“Beaudreau also admitted that he did not review his investment account statements prior to executing the Updated Ethics Recusals & Screening Arrangement with the DAEO on December 23, 2022, in which Beaudreau told the [Departmental Ethics Office] that he did not currently hold any financial interests on the DOI’s 2022 List of Prohibited Investments when, in fact, he did,” the report said.
The Hill has reached out to Beaudreau for comment. The Interior Department declined to comment.