12/21/2018

This Legal Advisory urges ethics officials to remind employees that ethics laws and regulations will continue to apply to them while in a furlough status in the event of a lapse in appropriations.

12/04/2018

This Legal Advisory announces the release of a revised Public Financial Disclosure Guide and Confidential Financial Disclosure Guide and outlines the changes to both guides. A revision of the guides was necessitated by the revision of 5 C.F.R. part 2634, which contains the rules for Executive branch financial disclosure.

12/03/2018

This Legal Advisory discusses gifts of farewell receptions provided to government employees by former employers. The Legal Advisory also updates and modifies advice provided in OGE Informal Advisory Opinion 94x2.

09/27/2018

This Legal Advisory clarifies the meaning of “political entity” for financial disclosure purposes. For purposes of the Ethics in Government Act and 5 CFR part 2634, a political entity is a non-profit organized under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code.

09/19/2018

This Legal Advisory provides guidance regarding the annual report filing requirements that apply to public filers who change agencies or branches within the Federal government. The Legal Advisory clarifies which employees must file an annual public financial disclosure report, with what agency or branch the employee must file, what agency or branch certifies the report, and if the report should be sent to OGE for certification.

09/12/2018

This Legal Advisory reminds agency ethics officials of their responsibility to help ensure that an employee’s acceptance of a gift to provide for legal expenses is done in accordance with the limitations of the gift rules. Agency ethics officials should take special care when counseling employees on whether the gift is from a prohibited source as defined in 5 C.F.R. § 2635.203(d), due to the heightened appearance concerns unique to an employee’s acceptance of this type of gift.

08/23/2018

This Legal Advisory provides guidance regarding the updates to 5 C.F.R. part 2634, which covers Executive branch financial disclosure, Qualified Trusts, and Certificates of Divestiture. Attached to the Legal Advisory is a table detailing the changes.

07/17/2018

OGE has completed its annual survey of prosecutions involving the conflict of interest criminal statutes and other related statutes for the period January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017.

06/28/2018

This Legal Advisory discusses waivers under 18 U.S.C. § 208(b)(1) for an employee’s otherwise disqualifying financial interest arising from intellectual property rights.

06/26/2018

This Legal Advisory announces the issuance of guidance to assist ethics officials in identifying and analyzing potential conflicts of interest that can arise from various financial interests. These guidance documents cover various types of financial interests, as well as interests arising from employment and employment-related assets, and are available on OGE’s website.

06/18/2018

This Legal Advisory clarifies that for purposes of financial disclosure reporting, virtual currency is property held for investment or the production of income and must be reported on employees' financial disclosure reports. Ethics officials should review virtual currency holdings for potential conflicts of interest.

06/01/2018

In this Legal Advisory, OGE asks each agency to forward to OGE its annual letter stating whether its components that are currently designated should remain designated for purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 207(c). Any request to modify the existing list of components should be submitted in accordance with regulatory procedures.

03/29/2018

This Legal Advisory provides guidance on two important aspects of the Certificate of Divestiture (CD) Program: (1) the “reasonably necessary” divestiture standard in the context of current Executive branch employees who know they will be leaving Government service shortly and (2) the requirement that only an “eligible person” may sell property in order to qualify for the benefits of a CD.

02/08/2018

This Legal Advisory discusses what constitutes “similar or related property” for purposes of the Certificate of Divestiture regulations.

01/19/2018

This Legal Advisory urges ethics officials to remind employees that ethics laws and regulations will continue to apply to them while in a furlough status in the event of a lapse in appropriations.

01/04/2018

This Legal Advisory clarifies the 2018 thresholds for: (1) determining which senior employees are subject to the post-employment restrictions; (2) identifying which officers and employees must file public financial disclosure reports; and (3) implementing the outside employment and outside earned income restrictions for certain covered noncareer employees.