Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Commerce chief holds stake in company tied to Putin orbit
NEW YORK — Newly leaked documents show that 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 customers. Putin son-in-law Kirill Shamalov once owned more than 20 percent 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 Rockas added that Ross has withdrawn from matters related to transoceanic shipping vessels and has met the “highest ethical standards.”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.
The 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 the 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 how much of Navigator, which is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Ross owns. The ICIJ reported that Ross and other investors own four Cayman Island entities that own 31.5 percent of Navigator, a stake worth $176 million at Friday’s closing stock price.
Ross’ stake in Navigator is likely a small fraction of that. In financial disclosure forms he filed with the government this year, Ross valued his holdings in the Cayman Island entities, which include other companies besides Navigator, at no more than $10.1 million.
Sibur contributed 8 percent to Navigator’s revenue last year, according to reports filed with regulators. Russia’s energy sector is largely controlled by individuals with ties to state actors, including Putin.
Much of the new trove of files includes bank statements, emails and loan agreements from Appleby, a law firm that helps set up offshore dummy companies and trusts. Appleby told the ICIJ that there is “no evidence” that it has done anything wrong.
Other records came from Asiaciti Trust, a family-run offshore specialist based in Singapore, and from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in jurisdictions that draw the wealthy seeking privacy.
Big investments in two U.S. tech companies from a Russian government bank and Russian energy giant have also come to light.
The ICIJ reported that Silicon Valley investor and Russian citizen Yuri Milner got $191 million from VTB Bank and invested that money in Twitter. The leaked records also show that a financial subsidiary of Russian energy company Gazprom funded a shell company that invested in a Milner-affiliated company that held roughly $1 billion in Facebook shares shortly before its 2012 initial public offering.
Milner told the ICIJ that he was unaware of any involvement by the Gazprom subsidiary in any of his deals and that none of his investments has been related to politics.
Milner has also invested in a tech-savvy real estate fund co-founded by Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner called Cadre. Milner told the ICIJ that he used his own money for the investment.
In the case of Ross, the ICIJ reported Navigator’s Russian customer, Sibur, has ties to Putin in addition to his son-in-law.