Adriana 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 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 before policy meetings in which officials are not allowed to make such trades.
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.” Kugler is married to Ignacio Donoso, an immigration attorney.
In a statement Saturday, the Fed’s Office of Inspector General said it had opened an investigation into the matter.
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 ban 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.
Kugler’s disclosures clear up some of the questions around her unexpected exit from the Fed months before her term was set to expire in January. At the time, she said she was leaving to return to Georgetown University to teach.
Her departure came at a tumultuous time for the Fed as it navigated a litany of attacks from President Donald Trump, who has long wanted the central bank to lower interest rates more aggressively.
Some of the improper trades were flagged to the Fed’s internal watchdog in early 2025. That came after meetings 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.
Kugler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Her departure from the Fed gave Trump an opening to appoint one of his top economic advisers to the Fed, Stephen Miran, who has in his first two meetings called for aggressive cuts to borrowing costs.