H.R. 3849 — STABLE GENIUS Act

This section prohibits covered individuals—defined as the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, Delegates, Resident Commissioners of Puerto Rico, or candidates for those offices—from engaging in any prohibited financial transaction involving a covered investment (i.e., any digital asset, such as a digital representation of value recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger) during (1) the period from filing as a candidate through the covered election, (2) their term of service, and (3) the one-year period after service ends. Prohibited financial transactions include (1) issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing a covered investment; (2) purchasing, selling, holding, or otherwise obtaining one; (3) acquiring a comparable financial interest synthetically (e.g., via derivatives such as options or warrants); or (4) acquiring such an interest via aggregation (e.g., mutual funds or exchange-traded funds). Covered individuals must instead place existing covered investments into a qualified blind trust (as defined in 5 U.S.C. §13104(f)(3) and approved by the applicable supervising ethics office), whose trustee must divest them within six months, provide annual certifications of nondisclosure to the covered individual, and lack any close personal or business relationship with that individual. This section further (1) requires supervising ethics offices to publish qualified blind trust agreements online; (2) amends 5 U.S.C. §13101(18) to designate the Federal Election Commission as a supervising ethics office for relevant candidates; (3) deems violations unofficial acts ineligible for civil or criminal immunity; (4) authorizes the Attorney General to pursue civil penalties of up to $250,000 plus disgorgement of profits; and (5) establishes criminal penalties for knowing violations causing $1 million or more in aggregate U.S. losses or yielding direct or indirect financial benefits (via family or business associates), including fines under 18 U.S.C. and imprisonment for up to 18 years.