The new US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has received at least $ 7 million (£ 5.1 million) for lectures at government regulated banks, consultancies and hedge funds in the past two years, according to recently released documents.
The former Federal Reserve chairman released a list of more than 50 paid lectures to financial firms that included $ 67,500 from Goldman Sachs, $ 54,000 from an event at Barclays and $ 292,500 from a single speech to the Citadel hedge fund .
The documents were sent to the United States Government Ethics Office as part of Yellen’s efforts to secure the leadership position in the United States Treasury. Although she has already been chosen for the job by President-elect Joe Biden, she still needs to get formal approval from the United States Senate.
The archives showed that Yellen also won $ 112,500 with a single lecture with UBS, $ 225,000 with a lecture for PwC and $ 270,000 with an event with London-based Standard Chartered bank.
It is common for senior government officials, like Yellen, to take paid roles as speakers after retirement. Ben Bernanke, who served as president of the Federal Reserve before Yellen, earned about $ 250,000 for a single speech after leaving the central bank, where he earned $ 199,700 a year.
However, Yellen – who made just over $ 200,000 a year when he headed the United States Fed between 2014 and 2018 – said he would get official permission before taking part in decisions involving any companies that paid fees to her, since she was formally appointed to the Treasury.
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Yellen also pledged to leave Australian investment firm Magellan Financial Group, with which she earned $ 125,000 as a consultant and about $ 225,000 in speaker fees. It has pledged to give up assets of 13 companies, including telecommunications giant AT&T, pharmaceutical Pfizer and chemical Dupont to avoid any conflict of interest.
Similar documents by current Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive and Hollywood film financier, before his 2017 appointment did not reveal any significant lecture fees.
However, Mnuchin promised to divest at least $ 94 million in investments in 43 firms as soon as he was appointed to Donald Trump’s office. He was later criticized for failing to properly disclose that he owned nearly $ 100 million in real estate and held the position of director of an offshore commercial vehicle based in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven.