US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a major figure in implementing US President Donald Trump’s economic agenda including tariffs, disclosed on Sunday that he has recently divested his interests in a soybean farm to comply with the ethics agreement he signed last January when he joined the administration.
The divestiture comes four months after the US Office of Government Ethics informed the Senate Finance Committee in an August 11 letter that Bessent had failed to comply with certain terms of the agreement aimed at avoiding any potential conflict of interest.
“I’m involved in the agricultural industry. I run a soybean farm,” Bessent initially told CBS’ Face the Nation programme while discussing the US trade situation for US farmers. He quickly added: “I actually just divested it this week as part of my ethics agreement. So I’m out of that business”.
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The New York Times has reported that Bessent owned as much as US$25 million of soybean and corn farmland in North Dakota, including thousands of acres that earned him as much as US$1 million a year in rental income.
As part of his ethics agreement, Bessent pledged to divest his Key Square Group hedge fund and other assets to avoid conflicts of interest. Many of the divestitures were to be completed by April 28, 2025.
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In an August statement issued by the Treasury Department, Bessent said he had completed all but 4 per cent of the asset divestitures required by his ethics agreement and intended to divest the remaining assets by the end of the year.