Wilbur Ross needs a visit to the glue factory.
The $120 million Wilbur Ross allegedly swindled isn’t the first time his finances have come under scrutiny. He’s had multiple financial assets that were potential conflicts of interest.
— Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew - Aug 8, 2018
Ross has his own definition of being Commerce Secretary. Just as with Trump, it’s about self enrichment.
Four of Ross’s six former lieutenants are suing the commerce secretary for robbing them back when they worked together. Alongside improper fees and regulatory penalties, the questionable financial moves add up to a total $123 million, almost a fifth of Ross’ estimated $700 million in wealth.
The story comes to us from Forbes, which has been investigating Ross since the magazine discovered he lied to them about $2 billion in phony assets in order to assure a place on their list of billionaires. Digging into his record as a private equity investor, reporter Dan Alexander documented a boatload of dodgy moves.
Over several months, in speaking with 21 people who know Ross, Forbes uncovered a pattern: Many of those who worked directly with him claim that Ross wrongly siphoned or outright stole a few million here and a few million there, huge amounts for most but not necessarily for the commerce secretary.
Republicans elected him but every taxpayer has to pay. Republicans will pass Trump’s $12 Billion in Federal HANDOUTS. Aid that was denied to Puerto Rico, the poor and hungry.
“When we don’t sell soybeans to China, then that means that Argentina and Brazil are. If there’s an agreement on reducing the tariffs and the Chinese tariff against soybeans from the United States goes away, then what’s going to happen when China is already buying from Argentina and Brazil? How do we get that market back?”
— Sen. Jerry Moran [R-KS]
“We don’t apologize for America anymore. We stand up for America. We stand up for the patriots that defend America. And we stand up for our national anthem.”
— Trump, President of America LAST, Trump’s FIRST
Since March, Jiahao Flag Factory, located in Fuyang, Anhui province, has made approximately 90,000 of the flags for use at Trump campaign events, according to Reuters.
Like this
For example, China is the world's largest consumer of soybeans, gobbling up about 65 percent of all trade of the commodity. The Chinese bought more than $12 billion in American soybeans in 2017, or 57 percent of all U.S. exports of the crop.
It may provide some short-term relief for U.S. farmers and ranchers at a time when net farm incomes are at a 12-year low
“This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and the White House’s ‘plan’ is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches”
"America's farmers don't want to be paid to lose — they want to win by feeding the world," Sasse said in a statement before alluding to the economic conditions at the onset of the Great Depression. "This administration's tariffs and bailouts aren't going to make America great again, they're just going to make it 1929 again."
— Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb
“You have a terrible policy that sends farmers to the poorhouse, and then you put them on welfare, and we borrow the money from other countries. It’s hard to believe there isn’t an outright revolt right now in Congress over what is happening.”
— Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn
“This is becoming more and more like a Soviet type of economy here. Commissars deciding who should be granted waivers. Commissars in the administration trying to figure out how they’re going to sprinkle around benefits,”
— Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc
“We're opening up markets. You watch what's going to happen. Just be a little patient”, President Donald J Trump #LiarInChief
Self enrichment and ethics scandals are synonymous with the Trump administration.
Will Jeff Sessions’ DOJ do their job? If so then Pruitt, Ivanka and Jared should be next. Patriotic Americans will leave Donald for Mueller!
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross should be investigated for possible violations of the STOCK Act or other insider trading laws and false statements to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), according to criminal and ethics complaints filed today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and OGE.
Knowing that the New York Times was close to publishing a story about his dealings with Navigator Holdings and its ties to Putin’s closest allies, Ross appears to have engaged in a short sale of Navigator stock, in order to profit from a dropping stock price. The STOCK Act prohibits executive branch employees from using “nonpublic information derived from such person’s position as an executive branch employee or gained from the performance of such person’s official responsibilities as a means for making a private profit.” In addition, securities laws prohibit executing trades based on inside information, such as information obtained by virtue of one’s government position.
“Secretary Ross’s actions appear to demonstrate a knowing and repeated disregard for his ethics obligations,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said. “The seriousness of his actions, potentially including using his position for insider trading, warrants an immediate and thorough investigation.”
Federal law prohibits anyone from knowingly and willfully making “any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch. There is substantial evidence that Secretary Ross may have knowingly and willfully made false or fraudulent statements when he certified to OGE that he had completed divestiture of all required assets, then six weeks later sold substantial amounts of Invesco, Ltd. stock — an asset he was required to divest.
“Cabinet officials should not be lying about their ethics obligations, nor should they be using information they gleaned from their position for personal profit,” Bookbinder said. “The possibility that Secretary Ross may have tried to profit from his own ethics scandal takes this into uncharted territory.”
In late October 2017, US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross was asked for comment about a damning story (paywall) on his business ties to the Kremlin. Bad press was inevitable, and the company that tied him to Russia was sure to suffer a hit in its market value.
Ross “retains a financial interest in Navigator Holdings via a number of companies in the Cayman Islands”. #ParadisePapers #TaxEvasion
But if that revelation from the Paradise Papers was giving him lemons, Ross found a way to make lemonade. Forbes reports that a few days after the New York Times reached him for comment, Ross opened up a short position against Navigator Holdings—essentially, a bet that its stock would go down.
This has to be the first time a Cabinet official tried to make money off of his own ethics scandal
- Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew - June 19, 2018
Conflict of interest is PC for Self Enrichment and Corruption #TrumpSwamp #RepublicansComplicit
And unlike his boss, Ross promised to divest from almost all his holdings upon entering government, drawing bipartisan praise en route to an easy confirmation. “You have really made a very personal sacrifice,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut. “Your service has resulted in your divesting yourself of literally hundreds of millions of dollars.” In November 2017, Ross confirmed in writing to the federal Office of Government Ethics that he had divested everything he promised.
“Wilbur Ross is not known for telling the truth.” On a Sunday afternoon last fall, just back from a trip to Asia, Ross called Forbes to lie about his personal fortune. Forbes had listed the commerce secretary on its billionaires rankings for years, but his financial disclosure report revealed less than $700 million in assets.
Those billions apparently did not exist, but when six senators demanded an investigation, Ross insisted his statements contained a kernel of truth. “At the time of my conversation with the reporter, I was in the process of creating a trust as a mechanism to divest my assets in order to comply with my ethics agreement.” But Ross’ ethics agreement required him to divest, either by selling his assets or giving them away. Simply parking them in a trust was not enough.
