Last week, Oklahoma Watch released a report on Senator Markwayne Mullin’s amended financial disclosure from 2023.
Bear with me, I swear this is interesting.
What stuck out about this disclosure were hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported trades. This is a violation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which requires Congresspeople to disclose any trade in stocks, bonds, or even crypto made by themselves, their spouse, or a dependent child within 45 days.
A spokesperson for Mullin who, puzzlingly, refused to be identified, told Oklahoma Watch that the senator uses a third party to operate his stock portfolio. This third party reports to the Senate Ethics Committee bi-weekly.
On the one hand, it’s hard to imagine how such large transactions could have been overlooked for so long if Senator Mullin’s financial team is so scrupulous. On the other, it could be easy to see this as a mere procedural quibble. This sort of thing isn’t uncommon. Congresspeople on both sides of the aisle have been found violating the STOCK Act. Mullin ultimately disclosed the trades, even if it was a year and a half late.
But this isn’t really about a handful of trades that got misreported. Mullin’s own conscience notwithstanding, what’s really interesting is the fact that the penalty for violating the STOCK Act is a fine of $200. You read that right. Meanwhile, the Tulsa World reported that Mullin and his wife own between $31.65 million and $108 million in total assets. Mullin’s mysterious spokesperson refused to answer whether or not he had paid his ticket.
As the expression goes: If the penalty is a fine, it’s only illegal for poor people. With so much to gain and so little to lose, what motivation is there to obey the law?