Wilbur
Ross
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2020;
Undated:
Wilbur Louis Ross Jr.
(born November 28, 1937) is an American investor and the current
United States Secretary of Commerce. On November 30, 2016, then-President-elect
Donald
Trump announced that he would nominate Ross for that post.[2][3]
On February 27, 2017, the Senate confirmed him in a 72–27 vote.[4]
He was sworn into office on February 28, 2017.
Before he was appointed, Ross was a banker known for restructuring failed
companies in industries such as: steel, coal, telecommunications,
foreign investment and textiles and who specialized in
leveraged buyouts and distressed businesses. In February 2017,
Forbes
magazine reported that Ross has a net worth of $2.5 billion.[1]
However,
financial disclosure forms Ross filed after his nomination for Secretary of
Commerce showed less than $700 million in assets, and Forbes removed him from
their billionaires list in November 2017.[5]
He is often called the "King of
Bankruptcy"
because of his record of buying bankrupt companies, primarily in the
manufacturing and steel industries, and later selling them for a large profit
after operations improve.[6]
In November 2017, leaked documents known as the
Paradise Papers showed that Ross had failed to clearly disclose financial
ties to Russian
interests in his confirmation hearings.[7][8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_Ross
-- 2017 --
November 5:
Commerce Secretary’s Offshore Ties to Putin ‘Cronies’
Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, retained investments in a shipping
firm with business ties to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s inner circle.
After becoming commerce secretary, Wilbur L. Ross Jr. retained investments in a
shipping firm he once controlled that has significant business ties to a Russian
oligarch subject to American sanctions and President Vladimir V. Putin’s
son-in-law, according to newly disclosed documents.
The shipper,
Navigator Holdings, earns millions of dollars a year transporting gas for
one of its top clients, a giant Russian energy company called
Sibur, whose owners include the oligarch and Mr. Putin’s family member.
Despite selling off numerous other holdings to join the Trump administration and
spearhead its “America first” trade policy, Mr. Ross kept an investment in
Navigator, which increased its business dealings with Sibur even as the West
sought to punish Russia’s energy sector over Mr. Putin’s incursions into
Ukraine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/wilbur-ross-russia.html
-- 2018 --
August 6: New Details About Wilbur Ross’
Business Point To Pattern Of Grifting
A multimillion dollar lawsuit has been quietly making its way through the New
York State court system over the last three years, pitting a private equity
manager named David Storper against his former boss: Secretary of Commerce
Wilbur Ross. The pair worked side by side for more than a decade, eventually at
the firm, WL Ross & Co.—where, Storper later alleged, Ross stole his interests
in a private equity fund, transferred them to himself, then tried to cover it up
with bogus paperwork. Two weeks ago, just before the start of a trial with $4
million on the line, Ross and Storper agreed to a confidential settlement, whose
existence has never been reported and whose terms remain secret.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/08/06/new-details-about-wilbur-rosss-businesses-point-to-pattern-of-grifting/#63892ee01c33
August 7: In an administration stocked with
world-class grifters and ethically bankrupt officials whose tales of corruption
dominate the headlines, it’s easy to forget that Wilbur Ross
has been running scams since long before the Trump presidency was even a twinkle
in Robert Mercer’s eye. Over the course of the past year,
reports have emerged that the commerce secretary, among other things, lied about
his net worth for
at least a decade; was
accused of financial crisis-era insider trading by European lawmakers;
concealed his investments in a Russian shipping company with ties to
Vladimir Putin; and allegedly
bilked colleagues out of millions. But according to fresh allegations,
screwing people out of their money appears to be less of a hobby for Ross and
more of a lifestyle.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/wilbur-ross-stole-money-from-colleagues-sweetn-low-from-restaurants
December 13: Inside the Trump
Administration’s Census Scam
How Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is trying to rig American democracy for the
GOP
Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, is a liar. And according to lawsuits
brought by former business partners, a thief. Now he’s attempting his biggest
swindle yet: rigging the 2020
census to favor the Republican Party.
A vulture capitalist with no experience in government, whose private-equity firm
was fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for bilking investors out of
millions, Ross was a tidy fit for
Donald Trump’s Cabinet, which the president stocked with tycoons despite
campaigning as a champion of the forgotten man. “I just don’t want a poor
person,” Trump said of his top economic posts. He saw Ross — supposedly the
richest of the lot — as a fellow traveler, a self-made billionaire with few
scruples. Touting Ross at a rally in Cincinnati, Trump boasted, “I put on a
killer.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/2020-census-citizenship-question-wilbur-ross-767078/
December 19:
Wilbur Ross Not Even Trying to Avoid Looking Corrupt Anymore
Due to the plethora of unsavory grifters who’ve found themselves in the
administration of Donald Trump over the past few years, Commerce secretary
Wilbur Ross has mostly managed to fly under the radar despite being, in many
ways, as laughably corrupt as
Scott Pruitt or
Ryan Zinke.
Since last year, Ross has been the
subject of a
series of
Forbes exposes which revealed—among other things—that Ross has been
accused of
stealing at least $123 million from his associates, and that he falsely told
ethics officials, in sworn statements, that he had divested from his holdings in
the Atlanta-based investment management firm Invesco (which also owns WL Ross
and Associates, Ross’ private equity company) when he hadn’t. The Center for
Public Integrity
reported in July that Ross had made between $1.2 and $6 million more from
the Invesco stock by selling it in December 2017 than he would have had he sold
it at the time he claimed he did, at the end of May 2017—90 days after his
February 2017 Senate confirmation, when he was legally obligated to due so under
his ethics agreement.
“Wilbur Ross clearly is not taking his ethics obligations seriously.” Austin
Evers, the executive director of the ethics watchdog group American Oversight,
told the Center for Public integrity. ... He’s been warned and at this point he
needs a full audit by OGE and probably Congress to make sure he’s not operating
with blatant conflict of interest.”
https://splinternews.com/wilbur-ross-not-even-trying-to-avoid-looking-corrupt-an-1831220324
-- 2019 --
January 12: Democrats are struggling to come
up with a way to provide back pay for low-wage contractors losing income because
of the partial shutdown, a complicated process that hasn’t been tackled during
previous government closures.
Contracted maintenance workers, cleaners, security guards and cafeteria staff at
government buildings are among the hardest hit by the shutdown, which began Dec.
22.
Unlike the hundreds of thousands of affected federal employees who often receive
back pay after a shutdown ends, low-wage contractors are not afforded
compensation once the government reopens.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/425015-dems-struggling-to-help-low-wage-contractors-harmed-by-shutdown
January 16: Senate Democrats on Wednesday
introduced legislation that would provide back pay to low-wage contractors
affected by the government shutdown.
“This bill is about helping a group of people who are often invisible—people who
work in the cafeterias, who clean offices after everyone else goes home,
security guards who keep our buildings safe overnight,” said Sen.
Tina Smith (D-Minn.), one of the bill’s sponsors.
Government agencies all contract with outside companies differently, and
contracts can take hourly or lump sum forms. Some contracting companies are big,
profitable companies that can shift workers around or continue paying them
through a shutdown, while others are small operations that are forced to simply
furlough their workers.
The legislation Democrats settled on aims to compensate those low-wage workers
that show up to work in federal buildings every day, filling jobs that once
would have been filled by direct government employees.
It would only apply to the set of contractors defined in existing legislation
setting guidelines for federal contractors: the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service
Contract Act.
Those acts cover maintenance, security, food workers, custodians, construction
and public works employees, as well as salaried administrative and professional
workers, among others.
The maximum level of back pay the government would provide would be limited to
$965 per week.
The legislation would also restore annual leave for the relevant contractors who
were forced to use it during the shutdown.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/425736-senate-dems-introduce-legislation-to-back-pay-low-wage-contractors
January 24: In an interview with CNBC on
Thursday, [Commerce Secretary Wilbur] Ross made waves by saying he does not
understand why federal workers are visiting food banks during the partial
government shutdown. He urged them to seek loans from banks and credit unions to
supplement their lost wages.
“I know they are, and I don’t really quite understand why,” Ross said when asked
about federal workers going to food banks. Ross is a billionaire and a longtime
friend of President Trump’s.
His comment drew criticism from Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.). “Is this the ‘let them eat cake’ kind of attitude?” she said. “Or
call your father for money?”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/wilbur-ross-says-furloughed-workers-should-take-out-a-loan-his-agencys-own-credit-union-is-charging-nearly-9-percent/2019/01/24/be1c9f1e-2020-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8b686e2b07fc
January 24: After criticism he's 'totally
tone deaf,' Wilbur Ross walks back furloughed worker comments
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday afternoon defended his take on the
financial challenges facing furloughed federal workers after saying earlier in
the day that he did not "understand" why they might need help from homeless
shelters and food banks.
Ross said in a second interview that his intention had been to make sure
government workers were aware that loans could be an option as the shutdown
continues.
"We're aware, painfully aware, that there are hardships inflicted on the
individual workers,” Ross said on Bloomberg. “All I was trying to do was make
sure that they are aware that there are possible other things that can help
somewhat mitigate their problems."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-commerce-secretary-i-don-t-understand-why-furloughed-workers-n962246
January 24: Many of those [furloughed]
workers are beginning to revolt, either calling in sick or saying they can’t
afford gasoline.
“It’s kind of disappointing that the air traffic controllers are calling in sick
in pretty large number,” Ross said.
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/wilbur-ross-food-banks
The government shutdown has now lasted 34 days, and several Republican
senators have indicated they think it is time for an end to the shutdown with or
without border wall funding. While the Democratic controlled House has
repeatedly passed bills to reopen the government, Senate majority Leader Mitch
McConnell has refusd to bring a bill to the floor for a vote that Mr Trump would
veto, even if there were majority support in the chamber.
Mr Ross continued: “So the 30 days of pay that some people will be out, there’s
no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan against it, and we’ve
seen a number of ads of financial institutions doing that.”
Meanwhile, federal employees have begun showing up to food banks in their
federal uniforms, while other stories of charity — a teenager donating a
recently-won lifetime supply of peanut butter, for instance — have proliferated.
“It was a really sobering moment for her to have to step in and say, ‘I need
help’”, Kellie O’Connell, the CEO of Lakeview Pantry in the Chicago area, told
the Chicago Tribune of a federal employee who cried as she signed up
for assistance.
Many of those workers live paycheck to paycheck, and have been forced to work
second jobs to even pay for gas to get to work if they have been deemed
“essential” and forced to work during the shutdown without pay.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/government-shutdown-wilbur-ross-food-banks-stamps-trump-pantry-loans-a8744801.html
January 25: Progressive strategist Navin
Nayak said on Friday that the remarks by Commerce Secretary
Wilbur Ross about how federal workers could get loans during the
shutdown and avoid having to visit food banks could come back to haunt
President Trump.
"I think this is a real vulnerability for the president as you think about his
re-elect," Nayak, senior vice president at the Center for American Progress,
told Hill.TV's Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on "Rising."
"He promised to remember the forgotten man, to hold Wall Street accountable,
this just sort of reinforces who he's actually surrounded himself with, the kind
of policies he's pushed for," he continued.
Ross on Thursday questioned in an interview with CNBC why thousands of federal
workers, who've already missed one paycheck, are relying on food banks during
the partial government shutdown.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/426976-progressive-strategist-says-ross-shutdown-comments-could-present-vulnerability
January 26:
Trump tried to clean up Wilbur Ross' tone-deaf comments on unpaid federal
workers, didn't succeed
President Trump told reporters later Thursday that he hasn't "heard the
statement, but I do understand that perhaps he should have said it differently."
So Trump took a whack. In essence, he said local businesspeople would "work
along" with unpaid federal employees, and he kept bringing up grocery stores.
The idea that a Walmart or Kroger or Safeway would give people food on personal
credit (not credit cards) baffled a lot of people. Most of us "do not inhabit
the world of Little House on the Prairie,"
noted New York's Sarah Jones. "Half Pint cannot go to the general
store and place a dozen eggs on store credit until Pa's farm starts to make
money."
https://theweek.com/speedreads/819750/trump-tried-clean-wilbur-ross-tonedeaf-comments-unpaid-federal-workers-didnt-succeed
January 26: Billionaires index ... [Wilbur]
Ross is the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and former owner of W.L. Ross & Co., a
private equity company. He started a series of value-focused investment funds in
2000 that paid him about $500 million in profits. He sold W.L. Ross to Invesco
in 2006, collecting a payout of $265.5 million over a six-year period.
https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/wilbur-l-ross/
-- 2020 --
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