FBI Director Kash Patel failed to timely disclose a six-figure stock purchase in Strategy (MSTR), the world’s largest publicly traded bitcoin holder, according to a report by nonpartisan news outlet NOTUS.
Patel allegedly purchased MSTR worth between $100,001 and $250,000 on November 21, but did not report the transaction to regulators until May 26.
The reason for the delay? lack of communication. Patel reported to the Office of Government Ethics that he “inadvertently” skipped the transaction due to an unspecified “miscommunication.”
Under the Stop Congressional Knowledge Trading (STOCK) Act, high-ranking executive branch officials must publicly disclose individual stock transactions of more than $1,000 within 45 days of the transaction.
The trade has come under intense scrutiny from government watchdogs due to Strategy’s BTC accumulation business and its previous dealings with federal agencies.
The company, which NOTUS says has done millions of dollars in business over the years with the Department of Justice, calls itself a “Bitcoin Treasury Company” and aggressively accumulates BTC as its primary reserve asset. Since 2020, the company has amassed a coin reserve of 847,363 BTC, worth over $50 billion at the time of writing.
