CREW Requests Documents on Betsy Devos’ Missing Ethics Agreement
February 5, 2018
The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) requires all Senate-confirmed presidential appointees with financial disclosure reports under OGE review to file a Certification of Ethics Agreement Compliance. As a Senate-confirmed appointee, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was subject to this requirement, but the OGE’s website contains no Certification of Ethics Agreement Compliance for her.
Betsy DeVos’s missing Ethics Agreement Compliance is concerning because without it, there is no evidence that she has divested from approximately 66 financial assets from which she was supposed to divest as a condition of her appointment and confirmation. These include stake in Neurocore, LLC, valued at between $5 and $25 million. Neurocore is the company behind a group of brain performance centers that offer highly controversial treatments for children with ADHD, as well as anxiety and depression.
CREW requested any Certification of Ethics Agreement Compliance filed by Betsy DeVos and submitted to OGE, any evidence of actions taken by DeVos to comply with her January 19, 2017 ethics agreement, and any communications between the Department of Education and OGE concerning Secretary DeVos’s compliance with her ethics agreement and divestiture or recusal requirements. CREW also requested any documents on any ethics advice DeVos sought or received to purchase additional shares of Neurocore.
The requested records would shed light on the extent to which Secretary DeVos has complied with ethics requirements and divested from her financial holdings.
Click here to read our FOIA request to the Department of Education, and here to read our request to the Office of Government Ethics.