Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest

Undisclosed financial conflicts of interest are situations in which an official acts in an official capacity on matters that materially affect their personal financial interests, without recusing or disclosing as the law requires. Concrete forms include voting on or shaping policy that benefits a personally owned company, granting permits or licenses to ventures in which the official has an undisclosed stake, and directing agency action that bears on a family member's business. Disclosure and recusal regimes exist precisely to make this category manageable; failures of disclosure are the abuse.