Credit: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
Credit: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
Landsman’s disclosure comes amid increased scrutiny of stock trading habits of members of Congress and the presidential administration as trade policy decisions in D.C. cause wild swings in stock prices.
Landsman, a Cincinnati resident whose 1st District includes all of Warren County, is presently co-sponsoring a bill called the TRUST in Congress Act, which would require federal lawmakers and their immediate family members to give up control of their individual stocks and bonds and place them in blind trusts approved by Congress.
Landsman’s stock sales are part of a process to “bring his investments and retirement into compliance with the TRUST in Congress Act — meaning his investments will be placed in an exchange-traded fund and managed by a professional to ensure there’s never a conflict of interest,” spokesperson Alexa Helwig said in a statement.
Helwig did not respond to questions about why Landsman, who has described tobacco use as “a habit that is addictive and can ultimately be deadly,” held stock in tobacco company Philip Morris International until selling it last month.
Other corporate stocks Landsman and his wife sold last month include Amazon, Apple, defense contractor L3Harris Technologies, Microsoft, chip maker Nvidia, transportation firm Uber Technologies and insurer UnitedHealth Group.
Taken together, the Landsmans’ March stock sales are worth between $379,000 and $1.44 million, a Dayton Daily News analysis of federal records indicates. Federal lawmakers are only required to disclose stock sale values in broad ranges.
Many of the companies whose stock the Landsmans held employ Capitol Hill lobbyists who regularly petition lawmakers for favorable legislation and treatment.
As recently as February, the Landsmans were still purchasing individual stocks in companies such as Amazon, Ameriprise Financial and Crowdstrike Holdings, according to federal records.
Voluntarily divesting individual stocks is a good start for lawmakers seeking to defend against “actual or perceived conflicts of interest,” said Dan Birdsong, a senior lecturer for political science at the University of Dayton.
Given that dozens of members of Congress this decade have violated existing conflicts-of-interest and insider trading laws with botched disclosures, Congress should “consider strengthening those rules” for the public’s benefit, Birdsong added.
Several members of Congress from Ohio, both past and present, are STOCK Act violators, according to reports from NPR, Forbes, Business Insider and Raw Story.
Among them: Reps. Warren Davidson, R-Troy; Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo; and Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, whom Landsman defeated in 2022. Rep. David Joyce, R-Bainbridge Twp. in northeast Ohio, is reportedly a two-time STOCK Act violator.
And former Republican congressional candidate J.R. Majewski also violated the STOCK Act by failing to submit — until months after a federal deadline — a mandatory personal financial disclosure during his unsuccessful 2022 run against Kaptur.
Nationally, three members of the U.S. House — Democrats Jamie Raskin (Maryland) and Dwight Evans (Pennsylvania) and Republican Neal Dunn (Florida) — have reportedly violated the STOCK Act’s disclosure provisions since last month.
About the Author