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Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (BRK.A and BRK.B) is a prohibited investment- NTK Announcement- March 25, 2019

By Office of Science Quality and Integrity

On March 22, 2019, the Ethics Office posted the following announcement on the USGS internal website, @theCore.  The announcement was included in a Need To Know e-mail to all USGS employees the following Monday, March 25, 2019.  

Questions or concerns regarding this announcement should be directed to ethicsoffice@usgs.gov. 

If you, your spouse or minor children have stock in either BRK.A or BRK.B, please contact the Ethics Office at ethicsoffice@usgs.gov by April 8, 2019, 11:59PM EST.  

Version #41 of the Financial Guide for USGS Employees (currently posted on the Ethics Office website) lists companies in which USGS employees, their spouses and minor children are prohibited from investing (Section 2) and lists companies in which USGS employees, their spouses and minor children may invest only in limited amounts (Section 3).  Version #41 of the Financial Guide for USGS Employees lists Berkshire Hathaway Energy and the ticker symbol BRK.A as a Section 2 prohibited investment on page 26.  Because Berkshire Hathaway Energy is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the name of the prohibited company published in the Financial Guide should be Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (not Berkshire Hathaway Energy); and both BRK.A and BRK.B (share classes A and B) should be listed as ticker symbols for Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.  The USGS Ethics Office will ensure that this is corrected in the next version of the Financial Guide.  If you, your spouse or minor children have stock in either BRK.A or BRK.B, please contact the Ethics Office at ethicsoffice@usgs.gov by April 8, 2019, 11:59PM EST.