Commerce Secretary’s Offshore Ties to Putin ‘Cronies’
“Secretary Ross has never had to seek, nor received, any ethics exemption,” Mr. Rockas said, “and he
works closely with Commerce Department ethics officials to ensure the highest ethical standards.”
It is perhaps unsurprising that Navigator would have a relationship with a major Russian company during Mr. Ross’s tenure.
In the statement to The Times, Mr. Ross’s spokesman said, “Private equity firms have a responsibility to their investors to optimize corporate structures,
and Secretary Ross has decades of experience that he is now using to benefit American workers.”
As worldwide shipping concerns, Diamond S and Navigator did not have much of a labor
footprint in the United States when Mr. Ross and his investors took over.
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.
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.
In a written response to questions by the Times, James Rockas, a spokesman for Mr. Ross, said
that Navigator’s relationship with Sibur began before Mr. Ross joined the board in March 2012, and that he had never met the Russian oligarchs who are Sibur’s major shareholders.