Latest news with #TomKrause
WIRED
21-02-2025
- Business
- WIRED
DOGE Put Him in the Treasury Department. His Company Has Federal Contracts Worth Millions
Feb 21, 2025 5:01 PM Experts say the conflicts posed by Tom Krause's dual roles are unprecedented in the modern era. Photograph:Over the past couple of decades, a number of US government officials have left their roles for lucrative jobs at tech companies. Plenty of tech executives have also departed to take leadership positions inside federal agencies. But four experts who track the federal workforce tell WIRED they were stunned last week by a development unlike any other they could recall: The Department of Treasury internally announced that Tom Krause had been appointed its fiscal assistant secretary, but that he would simultaneously continue his job as CEO of the company Cloud Software Group. Krause is now in charge of both a sensitive government payment system and a company that has millions of dollars worth of active contracts with various federal agencies through distribution partners, according to a WIRED review of searchable spending records. The Department of Treasury alone accounts for a dozen ongoing contracts tied to Krause's company that are together valued between $7.3 million to $11.8 million. These include licenses for the data visualization tool ibi WebFocus and purchases of systems called Citrix NetScaler that help manage traffic to apps. (Some publicly posted procurement records do not break out contract details, so actual figures may be even higher.) Critics have expressed concern about the alleged conflicts of interest posed by Krause's decision to keep his role in the private sector. Cloud Software could benefit from extending its federal contracts or securing additional ones, though there is no public evidence that Krause has done anything improper with his dual roles. Existing federal regulations also bar actual and apparent unjust favoritism in contracting. 'Public trust in those safeguards is nonnegotiable,' says Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project On Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group. As Krause moves forward with two jobs, he could have to potentially navigate not only contracting conflicts, but also dueling crises. 'What would happen if a Citrix emergency emerges at the same time as Treasury obligations?' says Jeff Hauser, founder and executive director of the Revolving Door Project, which researches federal appointees. 'Generally, the thicket of restrictions on full time employees would make a CEO role impossible in an administration which took adherence to ethics laws seriously.' Krause, the Treasury Department, and Cloud Software didn't respond to requests for comment. Cloud Software investors also didn't respond to a request for comment. The Treasury Department has told Congress that Krause is a 'special government employee'—a type of temporary role—that is supposed to be held to 'the same ethical standards of privacy, confidentiality, conflicts of interest assessment, and professionalism of other government employees.' In a foreword to a code of conduct policy posted on Cloud Software's website, Krause states, 'Cloud Software Group is committed to ensuring that its business is conducted ethically, in compliance with the law, and according to its values of integrity, honesty and respect.' Krause is among a group of several dozen veteran tech executives, mid-level tech operations managers, and fresh-out-of-school software coders who have been recently installed across a series of federal agencies under the auspices of the self-styled Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE's authority is being challenged by some Democratic state attorneys general. In the meantime, its representatives have been carrying out an order from President Donald Trump to cut costs and modernize technology across the government. There is some precedent for corporate executives to simultaneously work in the US government. When the US was at war in the early 1900s, the federal government recruited business leaders to fill key posts. They retained their private sector jobs and wages; the government pitched in a $1 annual salary to the executives who became known as 'dollar-a-year men.' Congress later raised concerns that some of them had engaged in self-dealing. Since then, other executives have continued to retain their jobs as they serve on government boards and commissions, typically in a part-time capacity. But maintaining a day-to-day operational role in both the federal government and at a corporation is now virtually unheard of, says David E. Lewis, a political scientist who wrote a book on appointed government bureaucrats. 'Most persons in regular executive positions divest themselves of private interests before government service,' he says. Trump, according to his company, has handed management of his businesses, including hotels and golf courses, to his children for the duration of his presidency (though he reportedly still takes meetings that have raised questions among ethics experts). Musk, who is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and has oversight of four other companies, including X and Neuralink, has been a vocal figure in DOGE's operations, but the White House has said he's not actually in charge—without specifying who is leading the project. Some of the other individuals associated with DOGE are otherwise unemployed, have taken leave, or maintain dual roles but at lower levels than chief executive. Krause is the only Trump administration official identified so far as being a CEO and a day-to-day decision maker inside one particular agency. After years of working as an executive at chip companies, Krause joined Florida-based Cloud Software Group in 2022. The company was created that year as part of a private equity-backed acquisition of Citrix, followed by a merger with Tibco, another tech company. At the time, Citrix was saddled with an extensive amount of debt and generating essentially stagnant revenues, and while Tibco had not recently publicly disclosed its finances, analysts had considered the company's outlook to be 'negative.' The US government, including state and local agencies, is expected to spend $287 billion on technology this year, or about 14 percent of overall US tech spending, according to Forrester, a research and advisory company. Whether DOGE's efforts to boost the quality and efficiency of federal IT systems will lead that spending to increase or decrease isn't clear. So far, DOGE has both tried to purchase emerging technologies and moved to cancel some existing contracts. But Krause's inside access could potentially provide an advantage to Cloud Software at a pivotal moment for the company. Over the past couple of years, Cloud Software has laid off thousands of people and faced accusations that it potentially became lax with cybersecurity. Cloud Software's most well-known offering, Citrix, enables groups of workers to access data and run apps that are located on a remote machine. But increasing adoption of tools that can operate on any device has chipped away at some of Citrix's dominance, according to Will McKeon-White, senior analyst for infrastructure and operations at Forrester. There are other options now, he says, including from Microsoft and smaller companies such as Island. Cloud Software's Tibco program, which helps workers automate tasks such as adding a new user to multiple internal databases, is often mentioned in the wrong sort of conversations these days, according to David Mooter, a Forrester principal analyst. 'They tend to come up more when somebody wants to abandon them,' he says. That said, some Cloud Software services are more affordable than alternatives for governments, and they also are better suited for the older infrastructure used by some agencies. Last year appears to have been one of Citrix's best in a long time financially, says Shannon Kalvar, a research director for enterprise systems management and other areas at IDC. One reason for the upswing is that Citrix has put more emphasis on catering to the feature demands of its largest customers, including governments.
The Hill
06-02-2025
- Business
- The Hill
DOJ limits DOGE access to Treasury payment system
The Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed Wednesday to limit the number of employees affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who have access to a sensitive federal payment system at the Treasury Department. Two 'special government employees' who already had access to the system known as the Fiscal Service will maintain read-only permissions, according to a proposed order filed as part of a lawsuit brought by several unions against the Treasury Department. Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez will continue to have access to the Fiscal Service but will not be able to edit or make changes to the system, which handles 90 percent of federal payments. The order, approved by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Thursday morning, will hold while the judge considers whether to grant the unions a preliminary injunction. The Alliance for Retired Americans, American Federation of Government Employees and Service Employees International Union sued Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the agency Monday to block Elon Musk and other DOGE-affiliated employees from accessing the system. The unions accused Bessent of improperly disclosing sensitive personal and financial information to Musk's allies, whose efforts to access the payment system had previously been rebuffed by a top Treasury official who later resigned. 'The scale of the intrusion into individuals' privacy is massive and unprecedented,' the unions wrote. 'Millions of people cannot avoid engaging in financial transactions with the federal government and, therefore, cannot avoid having their sensitive personal and financial information maintained in government records.' 'Secretary Bessent's action granting DOGE-affiliated individuals full, continuous, and ongoing access to that information for an unspecified period of time means that retirees, taxpayers, federal employees, companies, and other individuals from all walks of life have no assurance that their information will receive the protection that federal law affords,' it continued.
Russia Today
06-02-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Trump administration agrees to restrict DOGE access to Treasury
Lawyers with the US Justice Department have agreed to a proposed order that would temporarily restrict Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive financial data at the Treasury Department. The move by the administration of US President Donald Trump late on Wednesday comes in response to a lawsuit by a group of union members and retirees accusing the Treasury of engaging in 'unlawful action' by providing information on payments and private data to DOGE. 'The Defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,' the proposed order read. An exception would only be made for two special government employees at the Treasury associated with Musk — Tom Krause and Marko Elez. According to the document, the duo would be permitted access 'as needed' to perform their duties, 'provided that such access to payment records will be 'read only'.' DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Treasury: DOGE will have ‘read-only' access to federal payment systems
After people working for Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reportedly sought to gain access to a sensitive federal payment system, the Treasury Department is saying that a review of the system is underway and that staff members will have 'read-only' access to the information. Staff, working with a Treasury employee named as Tom Krause, will have access to payment system data, a letter from an unnamed Treasury official sent out Tuesday reads. The letter describes Krause as 'a longtime technology executive' with 'experience in building companies and managing balance sheets' and notes that he will be given a top-secret security clearance. 'Treasury staff members working with Tom Krause, a Treasury employee, will have read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service's payment systems in order to continue this operational efficiency assessment,' the letter says. Krause is further described by Treasury as an 'expert/consultant' hired as a 'special government employee.' The payment system, known as the Fiscal Service, handles about 90 percent of all federal payments comprising 1.2 billion transactions a year, including Social Security and Medicare payments. The review of the Fiscal Service hasn't resulted in any delayed or suspended payment, the Treasury official said. The attempt to access the system led to the resignation of longtime Treasury official David A. Lebryk, The Washington Post reported Friday, leading to fears that DOGE was interfering in core governmental functions. The access attempt has led to at least one lawsuit. 'The scale of the intrusion into individuals' privacy is massive and unprecedented,' the Public Citizen Litigation Group, the Alliance for Retired Americans and the Service Employees International Union said in a complaint filed in a District of Columbia federal court on Saturday. 'People who must share information with the federal government should not be forced to share information with Elon Musk or his 'DOGE,'' the complaint says. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
04-02-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Treasury: DOGE will have ‘read only' access to federal payment systems
After people working for Elon Musk's 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE) reportedly sought to gain access to a sensitive federal payment system, the Treasury Department is saying that a review of the system is underway and that staff members will have 'read-only' access to the information. Staff, working with a Treasury employee named as Tom Krause, will have access to payment system data, a letter from an unnamed Treasury official sent out Tuesday reads. The letter describes Krause as 'a longtime technology executive' with 'experience in building companies and managing balance sheets' and notes that he will be given a Top Secret Security clearance. 'Treasury staff members working with Tom Krause, a Treasury employee, will have read-only access to the coded data of the Fiscal Service's payment systems in order to continue this operational efficiency assessment,' the letter says. Krause is further described by Treasury as an 'expert/consultant' hired as a 'special government employee.' The payment system, known as the Fiscal Service, handles about 90 percent of all federal payments comprising 1.2 billion transactions a year, including Social Security and Medicare payments. The review of the Fiscal Service hasn't resulted in any delayed or suspended payment, the Treasury official said. The attempt to access the system led to the resignation of longtime Treasury official David A. Lebryk, the Washington Post reported Friday, leading to fears that DOGE was interfering in core governmental functions. The access attempt has led to at least one lawsuit. 'The scale of the intrusion into individuals' privacy is massive and unprecedented,' the Public Citizen Litigation Group, the Alliance for Retired Americans and the Service Employees International Union said in a complaint filed in a District of Columbia federal court on Saturday. 'People who must share information with the federal government should not be forced to share information with Elon Musk or his 'DOGE,'' the complaint says.
