An Open Letter To SEC Chairman Atkins

Congratulations on the new role — Trump appointee, sworn in April 2025, fresh mandate to get the SEC back to basics. We just need to talk about what “basics” actually means.

I Know Because I Was In The Room

Late on Wednesday afternoon, September 24, 2014, I was among seven members of the Janus Operating Committee summoned to an emergency meeting to receive startling news. Bill Gross — the “Bond King” who founded and turned PIMCO into the world’s second largest asset manager — was joining our tiny firm. To give perspective, Janus was worth $3 billion while Gross’ stamp collection — the largest in the world, on loan to the Smithsonian — was rumored to be worth more.

That’s when our Chief Compliance Officer spoke up. “We all know what’s going to happen to our stock on Friday. You are now INSIDERS. My job is to make sure nobody in this room trades our stock before the announcement. If you do, the SEC will kick you out of the industry. But I’ll cut your balls off first.”

The stock went up 46% that day. No castrations were required because nobody in that room traded. Not because we lacked the opportunity — a 46% single-day gain has a way of focusing the mind. We didn’t trade because we understood, without ambiguity, that the rules applied to us.

Every trade I ever placed in thirty-five years was pre-cleared by a compliance department. I filed paperwork. As Chief Information Officer, I was subjected to an excruciatingly long approval process. I accepted that the information I had access to was not mine to profit from.

I also watched what happens when others make a different choice. A conniving CEO bribed a broker to sell his mutual funds. Two greedy Portfolio Managers lied about the risks in their fund and bankrupted their investors. A concerned Senior Vice President tipped off his parents to sell a fund before it closed, saving them $5,000. Worst of all was the scumbag Portfolio Manager caught Frontrunning his fund — buying himself stocks right before his fund invested millions and drove the price up. The textbook definition of Insider Trading. My company was fined $100 million for that transgression.

All five were banned from the industry for life and received hefty fines.

The SEC came for all of them. Good. That’s the job.

What that Portfolio Manager did is identical to buying defense stocks the week before your committee approves a $22 billion contract. The mechanism is the same. The advantage is the same. The law is the same. The only difference is the Business Card.

So now let’s talk about Congress. And the President.

We Know What You Did To Martha Stewart

December 2001: Martha Stewart sells her ImClone shares after her broker tips her the CEO is dumping his. She avoids $45,000 in losses. Five months in federal prison. Five more under house arrest. Barred from running a public company.

Martha was not an elected official. She had no security clearance. She sat on no committees regulating the biotech industry. She was a woman with a cooking show and a broker who couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

The SEC came for her anyway. Good. That’s the job.

Now let’s look at the scoreboard.

The Scoreboard, Chairman

In 2024, members of Congress — both parties — wildly outperformed the S&P 500 and investing legends like Warren Buffett. Here is the official top 10, compiled from public disclosures and analyzed by Unusual Whales.

Now Let's Talk About Your Boss

President Donald Trump’s Q1 2026 disclosures showed over 3,600 transactions — roughly 58 trades per market day, worth up to $750 million — executed while making tariff decisions, awarding contracts, and conducting foreign policy that moved global markets. This crime scene doesn’t require a Forensic Accountant to decode. You just need a calendar.

His own Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, went on Bloomberg and said it plainly: “If any private citizen traded this way, the SEC would be knocking on their door.” The Secretary of the Treasury said that. On television. About the President. And Your Agency Did Nothing.

The Law Exists. You're Just Not Using It.

The STOCK Act has been on the books since 2012. Insider Trading by members of Congress is already illegal. Since you took over, SEC enforcement actions have fallen to their lowest level in a decade. Staff is down 15%. You’ve described your mandate as getting back to “Bread and Butter” cases. We’d like to suggest that a Sitting President buying stock in a company, then publicly pumping it by ticker symbol on social media, is about as Bread and Butter as it gets. At my firm, that would have been a Federal Case. At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, that’s apparently a Tuesday.

On Speaker Johnson, And Why Congress Will Never Police Itself

Here is what Speaker Mike Johnson said on camera when asked about banning congressional stock trading. Immediately after saying he supports a ban, he said:

“So the counterargument is — and I have some sympathy — look, at least let them, like, engage in some stock trading, so that they can continue to, you know, take care of their family.” — Speaker Mike Johnson

Read that again. The Speaker of the House — a man earning $223,500 a year, with a federal pension, lifetime health benefits, and 136 scheduled workdays in 2025 — argued that members of Congress need the stock market to feed their families.

I worked with lots of people with similar salaries who survived without buying Nvidia calls the week before a semiconductor summit. Without front-running a $22 billion Army contract. Johnson’s argument isn’t just weak. It’s a confession — that members of Congress view their position as a financial windfall, and that Insider Information is how they make it worth their while. The concern isn’t about affording groceries; rather it’s whether they can afford their swanky second home in Georgetown.

The bottom line is simple: Congress is never going to police itself. The people with the power to call a vote are the same people with the most to lose if it passes. The Restore Trust in Congress Act has 130 co-sponsors and a discharge petition 136 signatures short of forcing a floor vote — because Speaker Johnson controls the calendar, and his portfolio is doing just fine.

Which is why we’re writing to you, Chairman Atkins. Not Congress. YOU.

So Here's Our Ask

Chairman Atkins, you run the Big Bad SEC. An agency that ends careers for $5,000. Jails billionaires for $45k. Hands out $100 million dollar fines. The machinery works. We’ve all seen it work. I have seen it work close up.

Now Let’s Focus on the Capitol and the White House.

The disclosure filings are public. The trades are documented. The timing, in case after case, is extraordinary. You have the laws. You have the precedent. What you apparently don’t have is any interest in applying them to the people who write the laws — including the one man in Washington to whom you owe your job.

We get it. That’s an uncomfortable position.

It’s also the job.

So pretty please damn well do it.

Sincerely Yours — Whether You Like It Or Not,

The 77% of Republicans, 73% of Democrats, and 71% of Independents Who Want This Stopped. The poll has been the same for years. So has your answer.

The Restore Trust in Congress Act, H.R. 5106, remains stalled in the House as of May 2026. Congressional return figures sourced from Unusual Whales 2024 report. Trump trade details sourced from OGE Form 278-T filings released May 14, 2026. Johnson quote via ABC News, May 14, 2025. Berkshire Hathaway 2024 return per StatMuse. Poll figures from YouGov 2024. All figures based on public disclosures; exact values are reported in broad ranges per federal ethics law.