Self-dealing is when a fiduciary acts in their own best interest in a transaction. It is text-book corruption and apparently widespread among government and regulatory representatives on the left and the right. Undermining objectively determined policies and the rule of law is indefensible and socially destructive, so why do we tolerate it? See Government officials invest in companies their agencies oversee:
Thousands of officials across the government’s executive branch reported owning or trading stocks that stood to rise or fall with decisions their agencies made, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
More than 2,600 officials at agencies from the Commerce Department to the Treasury Department, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, disclosed stock investments in companies while those same companies were lobbying their agencies for favourable policies. That amounts to more than one in five senior federal employees across 50 federal agencies reviewed by the Journal.