One of Elon Musk’s employees is winning between $ 100.001 and $ 1 million annually as a political advisor to his multimillionaire boss, while helping to dismantle the federal agency that regulates two of Musk’s largest companies. Financial dissemination report Obeyed by propublic.
Ethics experts said that the double work of Roles of Christopher Young for a Musk company, as well as the government’s efficiency department, is likely to violate federal regulations of conflict of interest. Musk has publicly requested the elimination of the agency, the consumer financial protection office, arguing that it is “duplicate.”
Government ethics rules come from employees to do anything that “would make a reasonable person question his impartiality“And they are designed to avoid the appearance of using a public office for private profits.
The judicial records show that Young, who works for a Musk company called Europe 100 LLC, participated in the efforts of the Trump administration to relax the operations of the consumption agency and fire the majority of its staff in early February.
Young’s package raises questions or where his loyalty resides, experts said. The dynamic is especially worrying, they said, since the CFPB, which regulates the companies that provide financial services, has jurisdiction on the Musk Electric Automobile Company, Tesla, which manufactures loans for cars, and its social media site, X, Whatich, Whatich announced in January Which was a visa partner in mobile payments.
The richest man in the world in turn has not hidden his desire to eliminate the agency, publishing a week after Donald Trump’s electoral victory, “Eliminate CFPB. There are too many duplication regulatory agencies. “
“Musk clearly has a conflict of interest and should be challenged,” said Claire Finkelstein, who directs the ethics center and the rule of law at the University of Pennsylvania. “And, therefore, an employee or yours, who responds on the personal side, outside the government, and who can maintain only if he supports Musk’s personal interests, should not be working to Doge.”
Young, a 36 -year -old republican consultant, has been active in political circles for years, more recently as a campaign treasurer of the Musk Political Action Committee, Help Tech Titan spend more than a quarter of one billion dollars To help choose Trump.
Before joining Musk’s payroll, he worked as vice president of pharmaceutical research and manufacturers in America, the commercial association that represents the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, according to its dissemination. He also worked as a field organizer for the Republican National Committee and for the former governor of Louisiana. Bobby Jindal, The New York Times reported.
Young was appointed special government employee in the United States personnel management office on January 30 and sent to work at the CFPB in early February, according to judicial records and their dissemination form. Someone with their position could be winning up to $ 190,000 a year in government salary, documents Obeyed by Bloomberg Show. At the same time, Young collects a salary as an employee or Europe 100 LLC, based in Texas 100 of Texas, where, where, where, where, where, According to your dissemination reportTheir duties are “advising political and public policy.”
Beyond that description, it is not clear what exactly, Young does in Europe 100 or what are the activities of the company.
It was created in July 2020 by Jared Birchaall, a former banker who directs the Musk family office, excessive LLC, according to state records. The company has been used to paying nannies at least some of Musk’s children, According to a 2023 sensationalist reportAnd, together with two other musk entities, to facilitate dozens of millions of dollars in campaign transactions, Financial campaign reports show.
As a special government employee, young people can maintain external employment while serving for a limited period of time. But such government workers are still obliged to comply with the laws and rules that govern conflicts of interest and personal and commercial relationships.
Cynthia Brown, Senior Ethics Lawyer of Citizens for Responsible and Ethics in Washington, which Has sued the administration To produce a variety of public records that document Doge’s activities, he said that Young’s work seems to benefit his private sector employer.
“What hat are you crying while you are serving the American people? Are you doing it for the interests of your external work?” She asked.
In addition to his role in Europe 100, Young reported other ties with Musk’s private businesses. He affirmed in his dissemination that “will continue to participate” in a “defined contribution plan” sponsored by excess, the Ministry of Interior of Musk, and has served since February as a “vice president” of the United States of America, where the entity, “political and public political”, shows the records. While the latter lists among “compensation sources that excite $ 5,000 in a year”, the exact figure is not revealed.
Young did not return a call and emails in the comment. The CFPB, Doge and the White House did not respond to the requests for comments.
Musk did not respond to an email in search of comments, and Birchaall did not return a call in a number lists in public formation records. A lawyer who helped form the United States of America. When asked how their commercial interests and government work can cross, Musk said in an February interview that “,”It will challenge me if it is a conflict.“
The revelation of Young’s apparent violation of federal behavior standards follows a series of propublic stories that document how Another dux assistant helped carry out the attempts of the administration to implement mass layoffs in the CFPB while maintaining up to $ 715,000 in shares That agency employees are prohibited from possessing: actions that an expert called a “Quite clear rape“O The Federal Statute of the criminal conflict of interest. “A spokesman also said that the assistant had until May 8 to uninvert, although it is not clear if Hey and the White House reported, the The work of the assistant at the CFPB ended.
On Monday, a group of 10 good government and consumption defense groups, citing the coverage of Propulica, Sent a letter to the interim inspector general of the CFPBAsking him to “quickly investigate the thesis clear conflicts of violations of interest of the Trump administration officials who act in their own personal financial interest.”
Propublic has identified almost 90 officials assigned to DogeAlthough it is not clear how many, if anyone has potential conflicts. Government agencies have taken to release financial dissemination forms. But Finkelstein said that the cases reported by Propublic question the motivation behind Doge’s efforts to undo the consumer surveillance agency.
“It matters because it means that the officials who work for the Government, who are supposed to be dedicated to the interests of the American people, are not necessarily focused on the good of the country, but are in beer, and treated the beer, he stepped on, stepped on the beer, treated beer, beer, beer, brewery, berina to the berina, the beer ship tray, stomping, stepping on, stepping on, stepping on, stepping on, stepping on, stepping on, stepping on, stepping on Stepidating, Pisa, Pisa, Pedrando, Pisano, Pisa, Pisa, Pisa, Pedrando, Pisaning, Pisa, Pisa, Pisa, Pedrando, Treading, Treading, Treading, Preading, Treading, Preading, Pisa, Pisa, Pisa, Pisa, Pisa, asked, rolled, rolled, rolled to the beer.
CFPB unionized workers have seduced the interim director of the CFPB, Russell Vought, to stop their attempts to drastically climb the office staff and their operations. Since he assumed office, the Trump administration has tried twice to fire almost all employees of the agency, tried to cancel almost all his contracts and Instituted stop work mandates that have suffocated virtualy all agency’s workIncluding companies on companies, Propublic reported previously.
The parties will appear before an appeal court this Friday for oral arguments in a case that will determine how deeply VOUGHT can reduce the agency while ensuring that it performs doses of tasks mandates tasks to tasks when they are carried out when you are carried out when when when how itaals or finanal or financers.
The judicial records produced in the litigation offer a window to the paper that Young played to gut the duration of CFPB the first attempt of the administration to relax the office in early February.
It was sent to the headquarters of the CFPB on February 6, only two days after the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, then the interim director of the agency, He told the staff and the contractors to stop working. The next day, Young and other dux attendees had access to uncassed CFPB systems, as shown in the judicial records. That same day, musk aware “CFPB RIP” with a tombstone emoji.
On February 11 and 12, Young was included in emails with the agency’s senior officials. One of those messages Discussed the cancellation of more than 100 contractsan act that a hiring officer described in a Sworn declaration How to include “all contracts related to application, supervision, external affairs and consumer response.” Another message involved how to transfer to the Treasury Department Some of the more than $ 3 billion in civil sanctions that the office has collected from companies to resolve consumer protection casesA movement that could deny the compensation of damaged consumers. A third discussed the terms of an agreement that Allow the mass dismissal of employeesThey show the judicial records.
In Your financial dissemination formHe signed on February 15, Young listed his employment by Musk’s Europe 100 as an asset, as of August 2024 through the “present.”
THEN, IN EARLY MARCH, AS THE LEGAL FIGHT OVER THE ADMINISTRATION’S PLAYED OUT BEFORE A FEDERAL JUGGE, YOUN SI “Prepared to implement the rif” If the Judge Lifted to Temporary Stay, Accordination to a Opinion of the March District Court That has stopped most of the cuts proposed by the administration.
In addition to its employment, Young’s dissemination presents another potential conflict.
It also lists that it has up to $ 15,000 in Amazon shares, a company that is on the list of “prohibited holdings” of desks. Agency employees are prohibited from having such investments and Ethics experts have said that participating in an agency action That could increase the value of the action, as stripping to the CFPB of its staff, constitutes a violation of the statute of conflict of criminal interest.
Young has not answered the questions about that.
To Shaw Contributed reports and Alex Muejeski Contributed research.
