FBI Director Kash Patel waited six months to disclose a six-figure stock purchase in a company that does millions of dollars in business with his own Justice Department — a delay one watchdog said broke federal law, according to federal records reviewed by NOTUS.
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NOTUS reported that Patel bought between $100,001 and $250,000 in MicroStrategy stock on Nov. 21 but didn’t tell federal regulators until May 26 — six months later.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act requires senior officials to report stock trades over $1,000 within 45 days.
Patel told ethics officials he “inadvertently omitted” the trade from a previous filing.
“That’s violating the law — no other way to put it,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, acting vice president of policy and government affairs at the nonpartisan watchdog Project on Government Oversight.
“I continue to believe that Director Patel is in compliance with applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General William Taylor wrote in a May 28 letter to the Office of Government Ethics.
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An FBI official said the late disclosure was “not realized and unintentional.”
MicroStrategy — which bills itself as a “Bitcoin Treasury Company” — has done millions of dollars in business with the Justice Department, the FBI’s parent agency.
The FBI also investigates cryptocurrency fraud.
“Crypto Fraudsters have been scamming and taking advantage of the America people for too long. No more!” Patel wrote on X in June.
In May 2025, however, Patel bought up to $50,000 in Krispy Kreme stock while the FBI was investigating a ransomware group that had breached the doughnut chain’s data.
Before taking the job, he held between $1 million and $5 million in Elite Depot stock, the parent company of Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein, raising conflict-of-interest concerns given Shein’s ties to China.
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