California Code of Regulations › Title 10 - Investment › Chapter 3 - Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation › Subchapter 2 - Corporate Securities › Article 13 - General Provisions › Subarticle 2 - Miscellaneous Provisions › Section 260.607 - Conflicts of Interests

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
(a)
					 The Department is charged with the responsibility of administering regulatory
					 statutes which vitally affect the interests of private citizens and of the
					 general public. It is important that persons employed in the Department
					 maintain unusually high standards of honesty, integrity, impartiality and
					 conduct. They must be constantly aware of the need to avoid situations which
					 might result in either actual or apparent misconduct or conflict of interests,
					 since any such actual or apparent conflict of interests may impair public
					 confidence in the integrity of the Department regardless of whether any
					 improper influence or action has resulted therefrom.
(b) No employee of the Department shall:
(1) Engage, directly or indirectly, in any
					 personal business transaction or private arrangement for personal profit which
					 accrues from or is based upon official position or authority or upon
					 confidential or non-public information which he or she gains by reason of such
					 position or authority.
(2) Solicit
					 or accept, directly or indirectly, any valuable gift, gratuity, fee,
					 entertainment, loan, service, or any other thing of monetary value from any
					 person with whom he or she transacts business or may reasonably expect to
					 transact business on behalf of the Department or who has any other interest
					 which may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the
					 employee's official duties.
This Clause (2) does not prohibit the acceptance of food
						and refreshments of nominal value (not on a repetitive basis), or unsolicited
						advertising or promotional material, such as pens, note pads, calendars, etc.,
						or any similar gratuity of nominal value which could not reasonably be alleged
						to have influenced the official conduct of the employee, and does not prohibit
						the acceptance of reimbursement for the expenses of meetings attended in an
						official capacity, with the approval of the Commissioner, to the extent such
						expenses are not reimbursed in any manner from public funds.
This Clause (2) also does not prohibit an employee who
						is, or who may be, assigned to work on any application, filing or other matter
						involving the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act (commencing with
						Section
						50000 of
						the Financial Code) from making application for or receiving a residential
						mortgage loan (as defined by subdivision (n) of Section
						50003 of
						the Financial Code) from the residential mortgage lender licensed under the
						California Residential Mortgage Lending Act and subject to the employee's work
						on the application, filing or other matter so long as the employee immediately
						reports in writing to the Assistant Commissioner in charge of the application,
						filing or other matter the fact of the making of an application for or
						receiving of a residential mortgage loan from the residential mortgage lender.
						The Assistant Commissioner to whom such report is made shall normally relieve
						the employee in question of the assignment in writing; but the Assistant
						Commissioner may in writing direct the reporting employee to continue with the
						assignment in question if the Assistant Commissioner determines that the
						personal interest of the reporting employee is so insignificant as not to
						create even the appearance of a substantial conflict of interests. In making
						this determination, the Assistant Commissioner may take into consideration the
						extent to which the reporting employee's activities will be supervised and the
						difficulty in assigning the matter to some other employee, but all doubts must
						be resolved in favor of avoiding any substantial conflict of
						interests.
(3) Discuss or
					 entertain any proposal for future employment by any person outside the
					 government with whom he or she is personally transacting business on behalf of
					 the Department or by the attorney for any such person.
(4) Act in any manner, whether or not
					 specifically prohibited by this Section, which might result in, or create the
					 appearance of, using public office for private gain, giving preferential
					 treatment to any person, losing complete independence or impartiality, or
					 affecting adversely the confidence of the public in the integrity of the
					 Department.