Several weeks ago, the Department of Health and Human Services’ top attorney began personally investing in a glass company that sells hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products to his agency.

HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart’s March 24 purchases of Corning stock shares were worth at least $100,002 and as much as $200,000, according to a federal financial disclosure document Stuart submitted the day of his trades.

Last week, in a highly unusual move, Office of Government Ethics official Megan Granahan declined to certify Stuart’s disclosure “due to continued non-compliance” with an ethics agreement Stuart signed last year prior to his Senate confirmation.

Reached by phone this week, Stuart told NOTUS he had “no idea” that Corning did business with his department. He said he bought the stock because of Corning’s business relationship with Apple, the computing and technology company.

“I don’t use any information I would glean inappropriately. If I see something I like, I buy it,” Stuart said. He said he makes his own individual stock trades — without the assistance of a broker or financial adviser.

Corning stock closed at about $142 per share the day Stuart made his purchase and closed above $180 per share on May 20, when the Office of Government Ethics declined to certify his disclosure. Stuart said that when federal ethics officials contacted him a few days ago about his Corning stock, he immediately took action.

“As soon as I get those notifications, I sell. I don’t even ask questions,” Stuart said. “My whole career, I’ve never had even a whiff of an ethical issue. I’m extra careful that I am completely in compliance.”

Stuart pledged in that March 2025 ethics agreement to “avoid any actual or apparent conflict of interest” upon his confirmation as Health and Human Services general counsel.

The Senate confirmed Stuart in October, with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, praising his long tenure of public service in that state and expressing her confidence that he “will serve with distinction, ensuring the agency operates with accountability, clarity, and respect for the law.”

As part of his ethics agreement, Stuart — a onetime U.S. attorney and state senator in West Virginia — agreed to divest more than 40 of his individual stock holdings to avoid conflict-of-interest concerns.

Among the stocks he sold: various health-related companies and several major government contractors, including Palantir Technologies, RTX Corporation, Leidos Holdings and Honeywell International.

On Feb. 26, Stuart purchased a new tranche of Honeywell stock valued between $30,002 and $100,000, according to a federal filing. (By law, public officials are only required to disclose the value of stock trades in broad ranges.)

Less than two weeks later, Stuart divested of that Honeywell stock and “was recused during the period of ownership from all particular matters involving or affecting the entity,” Office of Government Ethics official Gretchen Weaver wrote in a note appended to a March 11 disclosure document that Stuart submitted.

On a document where Stuart disclosed an April 14 purchase of up to $15,000 in Nokia Corporation sponsored American depository shares, Weaver appended another note: “Acquired investment determined to fall outside of applicable limitations on filer’s investments.”

In early March, less than a week after the United States began attacking Iran, Stuart disclosed purchasing between $66,003 and $165,000 worth of stock in Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, a government defense contractor that in mid-March secured a contract with the U.S. Space Force that’s potentially worth $446.8 million.

He likewise disclosed purchasing stock worth $50,001 to $100,000 in L3Harris Technologies, another federal government contractor that’s scored billions of dollars worth of contracts in recent years across several government agencies, including the Department of Defense.

To date, there’s no official record of Stuart selling his Corning investment, although weeks or even months often pass before such documents become publicly accessible through the Office of Government Ethics.

“OGE publishes ethics disclosures, associated documents, and oversight correspondence to its website as soon as practicable,” Office of Government Ethics spokesperson Patrick Shepherd said in an email to NOTUS. Shepherd otherwise declined to comment about Stuart, saying the independent agency “does not respond to questions about specific individuals.”

OGE has historically served as the executive branch’s internal watchdog, policing potential conflicts of interest among its officials and flagging ethical issues within government agencies.

OGE staff have long relied on the bureaucratic equivalent of poking, prodding and nagging government officials to comply with disclosure, transparency and conflict-of-interest rules. Declining to certify a financial disclosure, as OGE did this month for Stuart’s Corning stock-trade document, serves as an ethical scarlett letter of sorts, even if there are no broader civil or criminal implications.

The financial disclosures OGE administers, processes and certifies have of late revealed curious stock trades or fiscal arrangements by other high-ranking government officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Federal Highway Administration Administrator Sean McMaster, Environmental Protection Administration Assistant Administrator Douglas Troutman, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino Tilman Fertitta.

But the agency has no power to enforce federal ethics laws, describing its mission as “one of prevention,” with the agency inspectors general and the Department of Justice primarily tasked with pursuing alleged executive branch misdeeds. OGE hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed director since early 2025, when President Donald Trump fired David Huitema, a career government official whom then-President Joe Biden nominated in 2023.

Members of Congress have introduced several bills this session that, to one degree or another, would limit or ban lawmakers — and in some cases executive branch officials — from buying and selling individual stocks. The bill that’s so far advanced the furthest, the Republican leadership-backed Stop Insider Trading Act, applies only to members of Congress.

Political Integrity Project co-founder Daniel Lobo-Lewis said public officials who want to minimize actual or perceived conflicts of interest should abstain from trading individual stocks and invest their money in broad-based mutual funds or exchange-traded funds.

They could also place their assets in what’s known as a qualified blind trust: a government-approved arrangement where an official’s wealth is managed by an independent trustee and completely hidden from them, Lobo-Lewis said.As for Stuart, he says he plans to continue trading individual stocks and disclosing them to the Office of Government Ethics on the very day he executes his trades.

“It’s an open book,” Stuart said. “There’s nothing in those reports that I’m embarrassed about in the least.”