Washington DC - Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent recently criticized members of Congress who partake in stock trading, while he faces allegations of failing to divest from his own financial hedge fund holdings.

In an X post shared on Wednesday, Bessent said he is "pushing for a ban on single-stock trading in Congress," arguing that "Public service should be about serving the people, not getting rich."

The post included a clip from an interview he recently did with Bloomberg, in which he explained the move was about "the credibility of the House and the Senate."

"You look at some of these eye-popping returns – whether it is [California Rep. Nancy Pelosi], [Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden] – every hedge fund would be jealous of them. And the American people deserve better than this," Bessent argued.

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In recent weeks, lawmakers have been pushing a bipartisan effort to ban stock trading in Congress, which has been opposed by some – particularly House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Bessent's boss, President Donald Trump, has loosely expressed support for the effort, though he and his Treasury secretary have not discussed banning trading for the executive branch.

As Bessent points the finger at his fellow politicians for their questionable financial moves, he is also facing his own allegations of violating financial ethic standards.

According to Reuters, Bessent signed an ethics agreement in January that required him to divest illiquid personal assets, including holdings from his Key Square Group hedge fund, by April 28.

Bessent failed to meet the deadline, prompting the chair of the Senate Finance Committee to send him a letter on Monday, reminding him that it is "his personal responsibility to avoid taking any action that could create a real or apparent conflict of interest with regard to his holdings."

In response to the news, Sen. Wyden shared an X post claiming no one working for Trump "has any business pretending to care about ethics, and suggested Bessent is trying to divert away from the public's obsession with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

"Bessent is fuming that I blew the whistle on the fact that he's hiding a huge Epstein file at the Treasury Department," Wyden wrote, adding, "Until he releases it, he's just running interference for Epstein's pedophile ring."