A Democratic U.S. senator is being accused of voting for millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to go to a consulting company owned by his wife.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust called on the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island "to determine whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest." The alleged conflict of interest relates to funding that benefited the Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit linked to his wife, Sandra Whitehouse.

FACT said that the senator's wife had been paid a total of $2,686,800 from Ocean Conservancy, either directly or through her consulting firm.

The senator's wife has been the president of consulting firm Ocean Wonks LLC since 2017 and directly employed at Ocean Conservancy since 2008 as a senior policy adviser. The complaint says that Ocean Conservancy paid the senator's wife through the consulting firm.

Sen. Whitehouse is known as a climate policy hawk, and he supported bills that directly benefited Ocean Conservancy, which has reportedly received more than $14.2 million in federal grants since 2008. The group received the grants to help fund marine debris cleanup efforts.

FACT said that the senator's wife had been paid a total of $2,686,800 from Ocean Conservancy, either directly or through her consulting firm.

Ocean Conservancy responded to the accusations by denying any wrongdoing.

"Dr. Sandra Whitehouse, a well-respected marine ecologist and ocean policy consultant, has not received compensation from these federal grants allocated to Ocean Conservancy," said Ocean Conservancy’s vice president of external affairs, Jeff Watters, in a statement to Fox News Digital.

He went on to defend the process that determined the grants could go to his group.

"The marine debris cleanup grants Ocean Conservancy received from NOAA came from laws passed with broad bipartisan support that then went through a competitive, independent selection process which designated Ocean Conservancy to be one among hundreds of NGOs to receive funding. Ocean Conservancy’s selection was based on our decades of expertise in addressing marine debris and protecting the ocean."

A previous ethics complaint about the alleged conflict of interest was filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group.

“Senator Whitehouse seems to have stepped over the line of standard environmental legislative advocacy and used his Senate office to advance his and his wife’s personal and financial interests,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

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