S.Amdt. 2235

This amendment aims to add rules about prohibited financial transactions to the bill S. 1582. The purpose is to hold our elected officials and candidates accountable by stopping them from dealing with certain digital assets.

Here is what the amendment changes or adds:

• It bans certain officials and candidates, like the President, Vice President, Senators, and Representatives, from issuing, sponsoring, endorsing, buying, selling, or holding digital assets.

• It bans these individuals from getting these digital assets through derivatives, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or similar means.

• It applies these bans during their time as a candidate, during their term in office, and for one year after their service ends.

• It requires these individuals to place any digital assets they own into an approved qualified blind trust, which must sell off those digital assets within six months.

• It requires supervising ethics offices to publish copies of these qualified blind trust agreements on their public websites.

• It states that any conduct related to a prohibited financial transaction is considered an unofficial act and is beyond the scope of official duties.

• It creates civil penalties, including civil actions brought by the Attorney General, civil fines of up to $250,000, and the requirement to give up any profits to the United States Treasury for knowingly breaking the rules.

• It creates criminal penalties, including fines and imprisonment for not more than 18 years, for knowingly breaking the rules if it causes a loss of $1,000,000 or more to people in the United States, or if the individual or their family members or business associates financially benefit from the transaction.