Treasury Secretary Bessent says he has divested his soybean farm
WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a key figure in implementing President Donald Trump’s economic agenda including tariffs, said on Sunday that he recently divested his shares in a soybean farm to comply with the ethics agreement he signed when he joined the administration last January.
The divestiture comes four months after the U.S. Office of Government Ethics told the Senate Finance Committee in an Aug. 11 letter that Bessent had failed to comply with certain terms of the agreement aimed at preventing any potential conflicts of interest.
“I’m involved in the agricultural industry. I run a soybean farm,” Bessent initially told CBS’ “Face the Nation” while discussing the U.S. trade situation for U.S. farmers. He quickly added: “I actually divested this week as part of my ethics agreement. So I’m out of it.”
The New York Times reported that Bessent owns as much as $25 million in soybean and corn farmland in North Dakota, including thousands of acres that generate as much as $1 million a year in rental income.
As part of his ethics agreement, Bessent promised to divest the Key Square Group hedge fund and other assets to avoid conflicts of interest. Most divestitures were to be completed by April 28, 2025.
In a statement issued by the Treasury Department in August, Bessent said it had completed all but 4% of the asset disposals required by its ethics charter and planned to divest the remaining assets by the end of the year.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Sergio Non and Diane Craft)
