The next US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, has been paid at least $ 7 million (£ 5.1 million) over the past two years for speaking at government-regulated banks, consultations and hedge funds.
The former chairman of the Federal Reserve has unveiled a list of more than 50 paid financial speeches, which included $ 67,500 from Goldman Sachs, $ 54,000 from a Barclays event and $ 292,500 from a single speech for the hedge fund Citadel.
The documents were submitted to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics as part of Yellen’s efforts to secure the lead role with the U.S. Treasury. While she has already been elected to the post by the elected president, Joe Biden, she must still obtain formal approval from the U.S. Senate.
The documentation showed that Yellen also earned $ 112,500 from a single speech with UBS, $ 225,000 from a speech for PwC and $ 270,000 from an event with London’s headquarters Standard Chartered.
It is common for senior government officials like Yellen to take paid speaking roles after retirement. Ben Bernanke, who served as chairman of the US Federal Reserve before Yellen, allegedly earned about $ 250,000 for one speech after leaving the central bank, where he earned $ 199,700 a year.
Yellen – who earned just over $ 200,000 a year when she headed the US Fed between 2014 and 2018 – said she would get official permission before participating in decisions regarding companies that paid her fees once she was formally appointed to the Treasury. .
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Yellen also promised to retire from the Australian investment firm Magellan Financial Group, from which she earned $ 125,000 as a consultant and about $ 225,000 in consulting money. She has pledged to divest assets in 13 companies, including telecommunications giant AT&T, pharmaceutical company Pfizer and chemicals firm Dupont to avoid any conflicts of interest.
Similar documents from the current Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs and the film financier in Hollywood, did not reveal any significant speaking fees before his appointment in 2017.
However, Mnuchin promised to sell at least $ 94 million worth of investments in 43 businesses once he was appointed to Donald Trump’s cabinet. He was later criticized for failing to properly disclose that he owned nearly $ 100 million worth of real estate and held a directorship with a foreign business vehicle in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven.