Adriana Kugler, who abruptly resigned from the Federal Reserve in August, violated the central bank’s ethics rules relating to extensive buying and selling of stocks last year, according to disclosures made public Saturday.
The delayed filing, posted by the Office of Government Ethics, details a pattern of trades in major companies such as Apple, Southwest Airlines and the restaurant chain Cava. Nine of the transactions were executed during blackout periods, when policymakers are barred from making any financial transactions.
Adriana Kugler, who abruptly resigned from the Federal Reserve in August, violated the central bank’s ethics rules relating to extensive buying and selling of stocks last year, according to disclosures made public Saturday.
The delayed filing, posted by the Office of Government Ethics, details a pattern of trades in major companies such as Apple, Southwest Airlines and the restaurant chain Cava. Nine of the transactions were executed during blackout periods, when policymakers are barred from making any financial transactions.
Kugler has said that the trades were carried out by her husband without her knowledge, and she said in the filings that “her spouse did not intend to violate any rules or policies.”
The documents also show that Fed ethics officials wouldn’t certify that Kugler had complied with the central bank’s policies and had referred the matter to the Fed’s internal watchdog. Fed officials are generally prohibited from purchasing stocks and must receive ethics approval before they can sell any shares.
Kugler didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
In the days ahead of her abrupt departure, Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell also refused to grant Kugler a reprieve to resolve financial holdings that fell afoul of the Fed’s tightened trading restrictions, according to a Fed official.
The episode marks the latest ethics controversy for a central bank still working to restore trust after prior trading scandals among senior officials prompted sweeping changes to its rules.
Kugler said Aug. 1 that she would leave the board that month, about six months before the end of her term. The move handed President Donald Trump an early and unexpected opening on the seven-member Fed board, which he filled with a top economic adviser, Stephen Miran, who has said he is taking an unpaid leave of absence from the White House.
Trump is separately trying to fire another Fed governor, Lisa Cook, over allegations she engaged in mortgage fraud. Cook denies the charge and remains on the Fed board while she fights her firing. (The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in January on whether Cook can continue to serve at the Fed while her case proceeds.)
At the time of her August resignation, Kugler didn’t provide a reason for her early departure but the Fed said she planned to return to teaching at Georgetown University. Kugler had missed the Fed’s late July policy meeting, and the Fed had said her absence was due to a personal matter.
Stock trading issues had dogged Kugler for months. In September 2024, Kugler reported four transactions that violated the Fed’s heightened rules against personal trading. She said at the time that the trades were executed by her husband without her knowledge or any intent to violate any rules. They involved trading of shares of Apple and Cava.
Saturday’s disclosures show the activity was far more extensive. They list at least a dozen additional stock purchases and sales in 2024, including nine trades made only days before Fed policy meetings, when such transactions are prohibited.
Two such trades during the restricted period in April 2024 were for the purchase of between $1,001 to $15,000 of Cava shares and the sale of $15,001 to $50,000 of Southwest stock.
“Consistent with her September 15, 2024, disclosure, certain trading activity was carried out by Dr. Kugler’s spouse, without Dr. Kugler’s knowledge and she affirms that her spouse did not intend to violate any rules or policies,” Kugler’s explanation in Saturday’s disclosure said.
Saturday’s release also disclosed Kugler accepted more than $41,000 in pro bono legal services from the law firm Arnold & Porter. A representative from the firm didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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