House Ethics Panel Fines Madison Cawthorn for Crypto Shenanigans

Source: Daily Beast

House Ethics Panel Fines Madison Cawthorn for Crypto Shenanigans

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) promoted "Let's Go Brandon Coin" while he had a financial stake in it. You can't do that while you're in Congress.

Ursula Perano
Politics Reporter
Updated Dec. 06, 2022 4:33PM ET Published Dec. 06, 2022 3:48PM ET

Just weeks before he’s set to exit Congress, the House Ethics Committee released its report Tuesday on Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s (R-NC) cryptocurrency scandal, ordering him to pay more than $14,000 toward a charity and a $1,000`fine following “substantial evidence” that he promoted a “Let’s Go Brandon” coin that he had an undisclosed financial interest in.

According to the 81-page report, Cawthorn had purchased a number of Let’s Go Brandon coins and urged another witness cited in the report to “pump this up so much” before publicly promoting the coin in an Instagram comment. But Cawthorn did not disclose his vested stake in the coin before publicly promoting it—a violation of House rules.

Cawthorn told investigators he meant to “publicly tell people” he owned Let’s Go Brandon coins, but evidently forgot.

On Dec. 31, 2021, two days after commenting on an Instagram post that Let’s Go Brandon coin was headed “to the moon”—a colloquial expression in the crypto community for exponential gains—Cawthorn sold 65,841,651,026 Let’s Go Brandon coins, which made up 36.58% of his total owned coins. He made an approximate 93% return on his investment, according to the report.

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Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-ethics-panel-fines-madison-cawthorn-for-crypto-shenanigans