Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is divesting from XPO Logistics, his former employer and a U.S. Postal Service contractor, the Postal Service has confirmed to Forbes, after DeJoy’s continued investment in XPO came under considerable scrutiny for being a potential conflict of interest.
A certificate of divestiture from the Office of Government Ethics dated Oct. 9, which was obtained and made public by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, shows that DeJoy is divesting from his shares in XPO, and can defer paying capital gains taxes on the sale of his XPO shares.
OGE issues certificates of divestiture in cases where the agency directs a federal employee to sell or divest from an asset “in order to avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of one,” but USPS spokesman David Partenheimer clarified in an email to Forbes Friday that DeJoy’s divestment was “totally his decision” and was not done at OGE’s request.
