A large, public set of executive financial-disclosure records reveals systematic financial ties between senior appointees and industries they regulate, including permitted ongoing services and undisclosed former-client relationships. Concrete examples (e.g., a deputy defense secretary allowed to retain services from his former firm while overseeing related contracts) show how ethics waivers and incomplete divestments create governance blind spots.
— If widespread, these documented ties raise the political and legal stakes for procurement integrity, recusal rules, and congressional oversight, and could reshape debates about appointing industry insiders to regulatory posts.
Alex Cuadros
2026.04.01
80% relevant
The article supplies a specific, verifiable example of regulatory capture: Aaron Szabo — previously a registered lobbyist for Ovintiv — is embedded in PDF metadata as the author of a 2022 industry comment letter to the EPA and is now the EPA assistant administrator overseeing methane rule rollbacks, illustrating the disclosure‑revealed links that the existing idea describes.
Al Shaw
2026.03.05
100% relevant
ProPublica trove of disclosure records; Steve Feinberg’s ethics agreement allowing ongoing services from Cerberus while overseeing the Golden Dome for America defense project.
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