Treasury Secretary Sells Massive Alcoa Holdings

Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill completed the sale of $100 million in stock and options in Alcoa Inc., nearly three months after he promised to sell the stock to avoid conflicts of interests.

It took that long to complete the sale without affecting the market.

O’Neill, who was chairman of the aluminum giant until joining the Bush administration, said ethics lawyers had told him he could keep his Alcoa portfolio because it was so large that it would “be easy for us to judge whether there’s any conflict of interest.” But ongoing questions about his holdings changed his mind.