The sudden August resignation of Federal Reserve Board governor Adriana D. Kugler drew little attention at the time, but newly released government disclosures now tie her abrupt exit to repeated violations of the Fed’s trading rules, with transactions in Apple, Southwest Airlines and Cava occurring during blackout periods and other restricted windows.
The Fed has seen a string of embarrassing personnel stories lately, and Kugler’s departure now lands squarely among them. The disclosure shows multiple purchases and sales of individual stocks, some clustered close to policy meetings when trades are barred for officials. Questions about oversight, disclosure practices, and how spouses’ trades are monitored have resurfaced.
Sixty-three-year-old John Harold Rogers of Virginia was arrested Friday and charged with conspiracy to commit economic espionage and with making false statements. Rogers allegedly conspired to steal FRB trade secrets in order to aid China.
Those events are only part of a broader reputational headache at the central bank, which tightened its trading restrictions in 2022 after earlier high-profile lapses. Another governor, Lisa Cook, has faced legal entanglements that temporarily clouded her status, while regional presidents have been forced to correct disclosures and accept scrutiny. The cumulative effect is a Fed under pressure to show it enforces its own rules consistently.
Adriana D. Kugler, who abruptly stepped down from her role as a governor at the Federal Reserve in August, repeatedly violated the central bank’s trading rules, according to a report from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released on Saturday.
The new disclosures showed multiple purchases and sales of shares in individual stocks including Apple, Southwest Airlines and Cava, a restaurant group — many of which took place during the so-called blackout period ahead of policy meetings in which officials are not allowed to make such trades.
Ms. Kugler specified in the disclosure forms that the transactions were carried out by her husband without her knowledge and that “her spouse did not intend to violate any rules or policies.” Ms. Kugler is married to Ignacio Donoso, an immigration attorney.
According to the filings, some trades occurred repeatedly in short time frames and included sizable amounts. Between $100,000 and $250,000 in Apple shares were among the transactions reported, and Cava trades appeared multiple times across a few weeks. One explanation offered on disclosure forms was that the transactions were executed by the governor’s spouse without her knowledge, a defense that raises questions about internal controls and the expectations placed on senior officials.
Internal compliance flags emerged after meetings last fall that reviewed disclosure rules and the process for reporting transactions. The report notes that improper trades were identified to the Fed’s internal watchdog in early 2025, and that compliance sessions took place in late 2024. That timeline suggests regulators began probing before Kugler announced her resignation, and that enforcement may have accelerated afterward.
Some of the improper trades were flagged to the Fed’s internal watchdog in early 2025. That came after meetings that Ms. Kugler had with compliance officers at the central bank in the fall of 2024 about the institution’s trading rules and the process to disclose transactions, according to a Fed official.
This is not the first time Ms. Kugler violated the Fed’s trading rules. She said in a financial disclosure form in February 2024 that four trades in individual stocks “were carried out by my spouse, without my knowledge, and I affirm that my spouse did not intend to violate any rules.”
The new disclosures detail a number of transactions involving the same company that occurred within weeks of one another. Ms. Kugler reported the purchase of shares in Cava just a week before the policy meeting on March 19-20 and selling on April 5. Cava stock was bought and sold twice more by May 15.
Southwest Airlines stock was purchased on March 22 and then sold the day before the two-day meeting that began on April 30. Between $100,000 and $250,000 in shares of Apple were purchased in April as well.
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Days before the July 29-30 policy meeting, Ms. Kugler asked Mr. Powell to grant her a waiver so that she could trade during the blackout period in order to get rid of impermissible holdings, the official said. That request was denied.
Fed policy now bars individual stock trades for many senior officials and extends those limits to spouses and dependent children. The rules allow only diversified investments such as mutual funds and prohibit trading in cryptocurrencies, foreign exchange and commodities. The roughly two-week blackout window before rate-setting meetings is meant to avoid even the appearance of conflicts tied to sensitive decision-making.
The rules, which apply to other senior members of the Fed as well as policymakers’ spouses and children, bar trades in individual companies and limit purchases to mutual funds and other diversified investments. They also banned trading in cryptocurrencies, foreign exchange and commodities. Transactions during the roughly two-week period before policymakers gather to vote on interest rates had long been prohibited.
With several high-profile disclosures piling up, the Fed faces a credibility test over how vigorously it polices its ranks. Transparency around enforcement, timely disclosure of investigations, and consistent penalties will shape whether the public sees corrective action or only limited accountability. Officials say they are working through the issues, but the optics of repeated lapses are hard to ignore.
Investigations and reporting on these matters are ongoing, and additional details could surface as watchdog reviews continue. For now, the disclosures linking Kugler’s resignation to trading violations put renewed focus on ethics rules, oversight mechanisms, and whether existing safeguards are strong enough to prevent future conflicts among those setting national monetary policy.
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