Interior Official Did Not Disclose Husband’s $3.5 Million Water Sale to Thacker Pass Developer

A senior Interior Department official failed to disclose that her husband received $3.5 million in payments from the developer of the Thacker Pass lithium mine, records show. Frank Falen sold water rights from the family’s Home Ranch in northern Nevada in 2018 to Lithium Nevada Corp., a unit of Lithium Americas.

The contract gave the company rights to at least 2,500 acre-feet of water annually and allowed the company to terminate the agreement if it failed to secure the federal permit the Interior Department grants. Karen Budd-Falen, who served as the department’s deputy solicitor for wildlife from 2018 to 2021 and returned last year as associate deputy secretary, did not list the sale on multiple federal financial disclosure forms.

Those filings listed the ranch but not the sale, and earlier forms reported ranch income as under $201 despite initial contract payments amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In November 2019 Ms. Budd-Falen met Lithium Americas executives for lunch in the Interior Department cafeteria.

Company spokesmen say no project or review was discussed; Mr. Falen described the lunch as social and said his wife knew little about the contract. Ms. Budd-Falen did not respond to requests for comment. Ethics experts said the financial link raised questions about whether Ms. Budd-Falen should have recognized a conflict and whether the public should have been informed.

Key Topics

Politics, Karen Budd-falen, Frank Falen, Lithium Americas, Lithium Nevada, Thacker Pass