SpaceX celebrated its initial public offering in June by selling hundreds of millions of shares — and making Elon Musk a trillionaire.
Among the buyers that day: Army Undersecretary Michael Obadal, who purchased between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of SpaceX stock, according to a financial disclosure document filed with the Office of Government Ethics and reviewed by NOTUS.
SpaceX does billions of dollars’ worth of business with the Department of Defense and the Space Force, including winning a $4.16 billion deal with the Space Force in May. The company does not hold contracts with the Army.
Maj. Pete Nguyen, an Army spokesperson, said Obadal purchased his SpaceX stock using Charles Schwab’s standard online brokerage platform as any member of the public could.
Trending
The exact value of Obadal’s SpaceX shares, which he did not specify, remains “well below the de minimis value exemption for the purposes of conflicts of interest” as outlined in federal law, Nguyen said. (Government officials are only required to report their stock-trade values in broad ranges.)
“Under Secretary Obadal is in full compliance with all federal financial disclosure and ethics rules,” Nguyen said. “Under Secretary Obadal has not had any professional or personal interactions with SpaceX, its employees, or officials. He continues to be committed to avoiding conflicts of interest as they pertain to his official duties.”
Obadal is responsible for “oversight of the Army’s business operations, manpower and personnel systems, acquisition strategy, and enterprise reform initiatives,” according to his official bio. In an ethics agreement Obadal signed prior to his 51-47 Senate confirmation in September, he vowed to take steps to “avoid any actual or apparent conflict of interest” and to resign from the government defense contractor Anduril Industries.
One government watchdog disagreed with the notion that buying and holding a defense contractor stock isn’t a conflict of interest for a top Army official.
“It’s ethically untenable for officials of federal agencies to be personally and financially invested in the fortunes of companies who do business with those agencies. Full stop,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, acting vice president of policy and government affairs for the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight.
“This is precisely why broad prohibitions on federal officials owning and trading stock while in their government positions are the only effective solution to both real and perceived corruption and conflicts of interest,” he continued.
Congress is actively considering whether to ban lawmakers and their immediate family members from buying individual stocks. A Republican-backed bill, the Stop Insider Trading Act, passed the House in July and now awaits consideration by the Senate.
Other stock-trading bills have sought to extend stock-trading prohibitions to top executive branch officials, but they have so far failed to gain enough support to trigger a vote.
Meanwhile, several top Trump administration officials have made notable personal financial trades or deals during recent months.
They include FBI Director Kash Patel, Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, Federal Highway Administration Administrator Sean McMaster, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, former U.S. Agency for Global Media leader Kari Lake, Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary Pedro Allende, Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator Douglas Troutman and former Department of Health and Human Services general counsel Mike Stuart.
Trump himself has been the subject of significant scrutiny regarding the intersection of his personal finances and public service. The president has reported thousands of stock and bond trades during the past year and has routinely engaged in private crypto and other business ventures since returning to the White House in 2025.
Author
