Trump official under scrutiny
NEW YORK • Newly leaked documents show commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, the Trump administration’s point man on trade and manufacturing policy, has a stake in a company that does business with a gas producer partly owned by the son-inlaw of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Ross is an investor in Navigator Holdings, a shipping giant that counts Russian gas and petrochemical producer Sibur among its major customers. Putin’s son-in-law Kirill Shamalov once owned more than 20 per cent of the company, but now holds a much smaller stake.
Commerce Department spokesman James Rockas said Ross “never met” Shamalov and has generally supported the Trump administration’s sanctions against Russia, according to the ICIJ report. Rockas added Ross has withdrawn from matters related to transoceanic shipping vessels and has met the “highest ethical standards.”
The details are likely to add to the questions about ties between Russia and the Trump administration, connections that for months have shadowed the White House and are a focus of an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Yet it wasn’t immediately clear how many partners Ross might have or what the profit-sharing agreement might be.
ICIJ disclosed the Ross holding as part of reporting on 13.4 million records of offshore entities in tax havens leaked to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper then shared the records with ICIJ and a network of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries. The New York Times is its U.S. partner in this inquiry.
The Times earlier reported on the Ross holding.
It wasn’t immediately clear exactly how much of Navigator, which is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, that Ross personally owns. ICIJ reported four Cayman Island entities in which Ross and others invested in now own 31.5 per cent of Navigator. In financial disclosure forms he filed with the government earlier this year, Ross listed the Cayman Island entities and Navigator as an asset, but the forms revealed not much else, including how much Ross makes personally from his ownership stake.
Sibur contributed eight per cent to Navigator’s revenue last year, according to reports filed with securities regulators. Russia’s energy sector is largely controlled by individuals with ties to state actors, including Putin.