U.S. Commerce chief Ross kept holdings in Russian-tied firm -reports
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has kept investments in a shipping firm with significant business ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, U.S. media reported yesterday, citing leaked documents from an offshore law firm.
Partnerships used by Ross, a billionaire investor helping to shape President Donald Trump’s trade policy, have a 31 percent stake in Navigator Holdings, which the New York Times said earns millions of dollars a year transporting gas for Russian petrochemical firm Sibur.
Gennady Timchenko, a Russian oligarch and Putin associate subject to U.S. sanctions, and Putin’s sonin-law, Kirill Shamalov, are Sibur stakeholders, said the Times, which based its report on files from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the findings.
In an emailed statement, a Department of Commerce spokesman said Ross “was not involved in Navigator’s decision to engage in business with Sibur ... has never met the Sibur shareholders referenced in this story and, until now, did not know of their relationship.”
He added that Sibur had not been under sanctions when Navigator began its relationship with the publicly-traded firm and still was not.
According to the Times, Sibur said in a statement that any negotiations with Navigator over the years were carried out by its executives, not its major shareholders, and that “no meetings were held with Mr. Ross.”
Neither Navigator nor Appleby were immediately available for comment Sunday evening. Reuters could not immediately reach Timchenko and Shamalov for comment.
The Appleby files are part of the so-called Paradise Papers, a trove of leaked offshore investment documents. They were obtained by Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and some media outlets.