House Office of Congressional Ethics found substantial reason to believe Rep. Thomas Suozzi failed to file periodic transaction reports for stock trades; the House Ethics Committee dismissed the referral, 2022

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The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) Board adopted a report on February 18, 2022 (transmitted to the House Committee on Ethics February 28, 2022) finding substantial reason to believe that Rep. Thomas Suozzi failed to file periodic transaction reports (PTRs) required by the STOCK Act; the OCE stated that its findings do not constitute a determination of whether a violation occurred. The report states he filed no PTRs from taking office in January 2017 until September 23, 2021, when he filed a corrective PTR disclosing 453 transactions from January 2017 through August 2021 valued between $6 million and $19 million; the OCE identified 31 additional reportable transactions that were not disclosed. The OCE noted that he had delegated his disclosure filings to his accountant, that he and the accountant cooperated fully with the review, that he had publicly acknowledged the failure and attributed it to a misunderstanding of the requirements for independently managed brokerage accounts, and that he had never received notice from the Committee of an obligation to pay a late-filing fine. In a July 22, 2022 submission to the Committee, his attorneys said the issues had been addressed and asked for dismissal, and said he did not know until August 2021 that his trades also had to be reported on periodic transaction reports, having listed them on his annual disclosure statements. On July 29, 2022 the Committee unanimously voted to dismiss the referral, concluding there was not clear evidence the errors and omissions were knowing or willful and that the Members involved were generally unclear on the PTR requirements and had made diligent remedial efforts; the Committee did not announce a sanction.

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