More than seven million internal documents from Bermuda-based Appleby law firm leaked to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reveal President Trump's Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has a significant, undisclosed business tie to Vladimir Putin:
Ross — a billionaire industrialist — retains an interest in a shipping company, Navigator Holdings, that was partially owned by his former investment company. One of Navigator’s most important business relationships is with a Russian energy firm controlled, in turn, by Putin’s son-in-law and other members of the Russian president’s inner circle.
ICIJ -- "a network of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries" -- is calling the collection of emails, documents, and electronic presentations -- the "Paradise Papers." Two reporters covering the Ross discovery explain:
Among Navigator’s largest customers, contributing more than $68 million in revenue since 2014, is the Moscow-based gas and petrochemicals company Sibur. Two of its key owners are Kirill Shamalov, who is married to Putin’s youngest daughter, and Gennady Timchenko, the sanctioned oligarch whose activities in the energy sector, the Treasury Department said, were “directly linked to Putin.”
Another powerful owner is Sibur’s largest shareholder, Leonid Mikhelson, who controls an energy company that was also sanctioned by the Treasury Department for propping up Putin’s rule.
As commerce secretary, Ross has direct authority over trade and manufacturing policy and is an influential voice in the government on virtually any aspect of the U.S. economic relationship with other countries, including Russia.
More from the NYT:
After he was nominated as commerce secretary, Mr. Ross filed an agreement with the federal Office of Government Ethics saying he would resign from WL Ross & Co. and divest from 80 companies and partnerships, but would keep a stake in nine others that held assets in “real estate financing and mortgage lending” and “transoceanic shipping.” The underlying assets were not specified.
(...)
Federal ethics law requires officials to recuse themselves from matters that would have “a direct and predictable” effect on their financial interests or cause a reasonable doubt about their impartiality. During his confirmation hearings, Mr. Ross sought to reassure senators that he would avoid any conflicts of interest between his continued business holdings and his cabinet post.
“I intend to be quite scrupulous about recusal and any topic where there is the slightest scintilla of doubt,” he said.
Read the full story in more detail:
Paradise Papers: Leaks Show Wilbur Ross Hid Ties to Putin Cronies (NBC News)
Commerce Secretary’s Offshore Ties to Putin ‘Cronies’ (NYT)
Trump commerce secretary's business links with Putin family laid out in leaked files (The Guardian)
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Benefits From Business Ties To Putin’s Inner Circle (ICIJ)