H.R. 1712 — MEME Act

This section expresses the sense of Congress that federal elected officials must not use their positions for private financial gain, including through the issuance, sponsorship, or promotion of financial instruments, which deprives the public of honest services, facilitates bribery, and enables exploitation and foreign influence.

This section establishes in 5 U.S.C. ch. 131 a new subchapter prohibiting covered individuals (President, Vice President, public officials per 18 U.S.C. §201(a), and their spouses/dependent children) and adjacent individuals (Senior Executive Service members, military O-7+ officers, equivalents designated by the Special Counsel, and their spouses/dependent children) from engaging in or benefiting from prohibited financial transactions—defined as issuing, sponsoring, or promoting covered assets (securities, security futures, commodities, digital assets including cryptocurrencies/meme coins/tokens/NFTs, and related derivatives/ETFs/mutual funds/ETFs) for pecuniary gain—during their service term and for 180 days before and after. (Such conduct is deemed an unofficial act outside official duties.) It authorizes the Attorney General to pursue civil penalties up to $250,000 per violation (including for continuing promotion/solicitation), disgorgement of profits (retroactive to pre-enactment transactions), and a private right of action for harmed investors/competitors. This section also adds 18 U.S.C. §228, imposing criminal penalties on knowing violations by covered or adjacent individuals where there is $1 million+ aggregate public loss or financial benefit via the covered asset (fine, up to 5 years imprisonment, or both); bribery in connection with such violations (punished per 18 U.S.C. §201(b)); and insider trading.