Donald Trump loves to brag about Wilbur Ross, “everybody on the [Wall] Street knows who he is.” Now everybody everywhere knows that Ross signed a statement in November stating he would divest himself of certain assets when he became Secretary of Commerce and he did just the opposite. A recent filing reveals Ross held onto stocks in Invesco and one other stock. The Invesco stock netted him between $1.2 and $6.2Million before he finally got rid of it. Forbes:
A spokesperson for Ross said the commerce secretary did not lie to federal ethics officials when he falsely said he had divested everything he promised he would. Ross claimed it was all the result of misunderstandings. They were remarkable errors for one of the most sophisticated investors in America. On federal filings, Ross said he held stock in Invesco and Air Lease that he did not realize he owned and believed he retained stock in Sun Bancorp that he had already sold.
Ross has come under increased scrutiny since Forbes revealed the Sun Bancorp and Invesco interests last month. The same story also reported that Ross held investments alongside the Chinese government for most of last year, dumped a set of toxic interests into a trust for his family members and shorted shares of a Kremlin-linked company days before the publication of a negative story on his ties to the firm.
On June 27, eight House Democrats asked the commerce department’s inspector general to look into issues raised by the report. The same day, three Democrats—Senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren, along with Representative Elijah Cummings—asked the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission to open an insider trading investigation.
Follow the money and you’ll find corruption and eventually you’ll be on the road to Russia with this group.
Wonder what our elected representatives could accomplish in any given legislative session if they didn’t have to devote so much time to investigating Republican corruption?
