U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has received at least $ 7 million (£ 5.1 million) for participating in government-regulated banking, consulting and hedge funds over the past two years, according to recently disclosed documents.
The former Federal Reserve chairman released a list of more than 50 paid oratory events for financial companies that included $ 67,500 from Goldman Sachs, $ 54,000 from a Barclays event and $ 292,500 from a one-time speech for Citadel hedge fund.
The documents were presented to the U.S. Government Office of Ethics as part of Yellen’s efforts to secure the lead role in the U.S. Treasury. Although President-elect Joe Biden has already elected him to office, he has yet to get formal approval from the U.S. Senate.
Presentations showed Yellen also earned $ 112,500 for a one-time engagement with UBS, $ 225,000 for a speech by PwC and $ 270,000 for an event with London-based bank Standard Chartered.
It is common for high-profile government officials like Yellen to take on paid speech duties after retirement. Ben Bernanke, who held the presidency of the U.S. Federal Reserve before Yellen, reportedly earned about $ 250,000 for a single speech after leaving the central bank, where he earned $ 199,700 a year.
However, Yellen, who earned just over $ 200,000 a year when he ran the U.S. Fed between 2014 and 2018, said he would get official permission before taking part in decisions involving companies that they had paid fees once formally appointed to the Treasury. .
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Yellen also vowed to give up Australian investment firm Magellan Financial Group, from which she has earned $ 125,000 as a consultant and about $ 225,000 in talk fees. He pledged to give up assets in 13 companies, including telecommunications giant AT&T, pharmaceutical company Pfizer and chemical company Dupont to avoid any conflict of interest.
Similar requests from current Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive and Hollywood film financier, prior to his appointment in 2017 did not reveal any significant speech rate.
However, Mnuchin promised to divest at least $ 94 million in investments in 43 companies once he is appointed to Donald Trump’s cabinet. He was later criticized for not properly disclosing that he owned about $ 100 million in real estate and had an address with an offshore commercial vehicle based in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven.