One of the most important purposes of the ethics rules and laws is to help employees avoid conflicts of interest. Agency officials regularly deal with conflict of interest statutes found in Chapter 11, Title 18 of the United States Code (sometimes abbreviated as U.S.C.). Many of these statutes make at least some special provision for the treatment of SGEs.
Let's first examine one of the most important: 18 U.S.C. 208 (financial conflicts of interest)