President Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary is in hot water with ethics watchdogs who say he has not divested himself from some of his assets as required by law, according to a new report.
The Office of Government Ethics sent a letter to a top Senate Republican on Aug. 11, alerting him that Secretary Scott Bessent had failed to comply with a law requiring him to divest from his financial assets, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The letter indicated that Bessent's delinquency poses a personal conflict of interest, according to the report.
The letter was sent at a time when Bessent had become a central figure in the Trump administration's trade talks with China.
One of the largest conflicts the letter highlights is a farmland investment that Bessent owns. The Times reported, citing his financial disclosure forms, that Bessent, who has previously described himself as a farmer, owns about $25 million of farmland in North Dakota, an investment that pays him up to $1 million per year.
Farm brokers the outlet spoke with said they were not aware of any land Bessent owns being up for sale. However, the Times caveated that Bessent may seek to sell the land privately, as many wealthy individuals do.
There were other assets that Bessent said he would not divest from. Those include a private equity fund, his holdings in a flavored water company, and a clinical-stage drug development company.
“As agreed upon with OGE, I am working towards selling the rest of my required divestitures before the end of this year," Bessent told The Times in a statement.