The Federal Reserve's internal oversight body has warned that a departing employee may have taken confidential information, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Office of Inspector General raised the alarm with management after completing an audit process for departing employees, urging stronger oversight of classified information.
The audit found that a staff member in the Fed's international finance division, who announced plans to retire in February 2024, attempted to take related documents before leaving. The employee's name was not disclosed in the warning.
In 2021, Fed Inspector General Michael Horowitz attended a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington.
The employee triggered more than 270 internal alerts before departing, involving printing, copying and sending potentially sensitive Federal Open Market Committee information to multiple personal email addresses, as well as transferring potentially sensitive documents to an unencrypted USB device issued by the Fed.
The person traveled in June 2024 to a country designated as restricted by the Fed. After returning, the employee printed information in the office over the weekend and then traveled abroad again, triggering more alerts.
The staff member retired in July 2024. In September of the same year, the Office of Inspector General contacted the employee to request the return of emails and printed documents; the person said they would respond but had other pressing matters to handle at the time.
The Office of Inspector General said the employee has not been heard from since.
The Fed's oversight body said there was insufficient evidence at the time to launch a misconduct investigation, partly because records lacked clear details about what information the employee took, and many internal alerts were false positives.
Nevertheless, the Fed's handling of the incident prompted the inspector general to reprimand the Board of Governors.
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