Trump Army Appointee Should Sell His Anduril Stock, Sen. Warren Demands

Sen Elizabeth Warren is calling for President Trump s pick for Under Secretary of the Army to sell his stock in a defense contractor that experts say would pose a clear conflict of interest In a federal ethics agreement first communicated by The Intercept Michael Obadal Trump s pick for the second majority of powerful post at the Army acknowledged held equity in Anduril Industries where he has worked for two years as an executive Obadal disclosed that contrary to ethics norms he will not divest his stock which he valued at between and In a letter shared with The Intercept in advance of Obadal s confirmation hearing Thursday Warren D-Mass says Obadal must divest from Anduril calling the current arrangement a textbook conflict of interest By attempting to serve in this role with conflicts of interest you hazard spending taxpayer dollars on wasteful DoD contracts that enrich wealthy contractors but fail to enhance Americans national measure Warren who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee writes that Obadal s stock holdings will compromise your ability to serve with integrity raising a cloud of suspicion over your contracting and operational decision Related Trump s Pick for a Top Army Job Works at a Weapons Company And Won t Give Up His Stock By attempting to serve in this role with conflicts of interest you threat spending taxpayer dollars on wasteful DoD contracts that enrich wealthy contractors but fail to enhance Americans national measure Warren writes A more detailed financial disclosure form obtained by The Intercept shows Anduril is not the full extent of Obadal s military investments According to this document a retirement assets account belonging to Obadal holds stock in both General Dynamics which does billions of dollars of business with the Army and Howmet Aerospace a smaller firm While nominees are not required to list the precise value of such investments Obadal says his holdings in General Dynamics and Howmet are worth between and Don Fox former acting director of the U S Office of Establishment Ethics recounted The Intercept that neither stock should be exempt from conflict of interest considerations under federal law The fact that they are within either a traditional or Roth IRA doesn t impact the conflict of interest analysis he stated Not sure why he would be allowed to keep those A DoD contractor is a DoD contractor reported Fox The degree of their business with DoD or what they do isn t material A lot of people were surprised for example that Disney was is a DoD contractor For a Senate confirmation position they would have had to divest In addition to these defense contractors Obadal holds stock in other corporations that do business with the Pentagon including Microsoft Amazon Thermo Fisher Scientific and Cummins which manufactures diesel engines for the Army s Bradley Fighting Car None of these companies are mentioned in Obadal s ethics letter detailing which assets he will and won t dispose of if authenticated In his more detailed disclosure document known as a Form Obadal explicitly notes he will be able to exercise his shares in Anduril if there is an equity event such as the sale of the company or the company becoming a publicly-traded entity potentially netting him a large payout Anduril was most of in recent days stated to be valued by private investors at over billion In addition to divesting from Anduril Warren s letter asks Obadal to get rid of the stocks in these other firms commit to recusing himself entirely from any Anduril-related matters at the Army and pledge to avoid working for or lobbying on behalf of the defense sector for a period of four years after leaving the Department of Defense By making these commitments you would increase Americans trust in your ability to serve the citizens interest during your time at the Army Warren writes rather than the special interests of large DoD contractors The post Trump Army Appointee Should Sell His Anduril Stock Sen Warren Demands appeared first on The Intercept