The Biden Admin Lawyer Who Sits Atop The White House Rich List

Vanita Gupta
The Biden Admin Lawyer Who Sits Atop The White House Rich List

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta is the wealthiest of the Biden administration selections with assets that could amount to up to $187 million.

 Gupta was confirmed in April in a 51-49 vote, overcoming Republicans’ objections about her views on policing and past criticism of conservatives.

A civil rights attorney she has reported owning between $42 million and $187 million in assets and properties with her spouse in her disclosure report filed to the Office of Government Ethics. She also reported earning between $902,000 and $3 million in the past year, the filing shows.

Most of her assets come from her shares in companies linked to her father, Raj Gupta, a corporate chairman and Wall Street financier with vast corporate interests.

According to the filing, Vanita Gupta owns between $11 million and $55 million in shares of Avantor, a chemicals and materials company headquartered in Pennsylvania, for which Raj Gupta is the chairman of the board.

She also reported owning between $500,000 and $1 million in shares of Aptiv, an American-Irish-British auto parts company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, for which Raj Gupta also serves as chairman.

According to the report, Gupta also owns between $950,000 and $2 million in entities connected to the private equity firm New Mountain Capital, for which her father has served as a senior adviser. Raj Gupta has also served on the board of the Vanguard Group, one of the biggest index fund companies, and Vanita Gupta owns between $11 million and $49 million worth of Vanguard index funds, which are commonly owned by other political appointees.

PHOTO: In this Jan. 7, 2021, file photo, Associate Attorney General nominee Vanita Gupta speaks during an event with President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. (Susan Walsh/AP, FILE)
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Most of her assets are controlled through family trusts she controls, except for $5 million to $25 million in Avantor, $500,000 to $1 million in Aptiv and six-figures in New Mountain Finance Co., which are under a brokerage account.

In her ethics agreement provided by the Biden transition team, Vanita Gupta wrote that she would retain her financial interests in those companies but would resign from her position as co-trustee of her family trust.

She would also not participate “personally or substantially” in matters related to companies in which she or her family hold a financial interest.

She also wrote that she would not participate in matters related to companies in which her father holds leadership roles, including Avantor and Aptiv..

Gupta’s plan to recuse herself from matters involving the financial interests of her family and herself is typically required by conflict of interest laws, said Delaney Marsco, senior legal counsel of ethics at Washington-based good government group Campaign Legal Center.

Gary Gensler, Biden’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, is the second wealthiest Biden appointee to disclose their financial interests to this point. Gensler reported owning between $41 million and $119 million in various assets, comprised mostly of investment funds and brokerage accounts, along with some real estate properties in Baltimore.

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