by ReeAll
Heath Tarbert was a chairman of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) till January 21 2021, when he stepped down to continue as commissioner. Now he is going straight to Citadel Securities as Chief Legal Officer, effective April 5 2021 as published by Bloomberg.
What is CFTC and what do they do? CFTC is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and “… is an independent agency of the US government created in 1974, that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures, swaps, and certain kinds of options.” [wiki]
Now I don’t know about you, but to me, this seems as a huge conflict of interests. And as far as I was able to find, so does to their own Code of Conduct and Supplemental Ethics Regulations.
Excerpt from the Code of Conduct
Which points directly to a law about this,
Since the point of CFTC is to oversee and regulate the very part of market that Citadel is also part of, I would imagine, that there could be instances when these two parties meet. And quick search showed, they do. For example in September, but that’s just to prove a point.
External meeting register of CFTC
I truly am just an ape, but I would imagine, that matters of these meetings are advised by a group of lawyers prior to them (maybe even during in some instances).
And since Tarbert is becoming the Chief of lawyers at Citadel Securities, they will all answer to him and he will lead them. That seems like a clear conflict of interest and, if I am getting it correctly, brakes the rule that prohibits this for 1-2 years after the termination and should be punishable.
Am I getting this right? Is it really enough for him to distance himself by only one level, so for example by not going to the meetings or to not directly communicate with any employee of his formal employer?
I honestly what to grasp this topic better, I’m not drawing any conclusions.
Disclaimer: This content does not necessarily represent the views of IWB.