Monday, June 25, 2018

25/6/18: Wilbur Ross: The MAGAlithic Cat Fish of Washington's Swamps?


The 'hero' of the Irish banking sector bailouts, Wilbur Ross, formerly of Bank of Ireland and Bank of Cyprus fame, a dude who would have made the podium in bottom-fishing were it ever designated an Olympic sport, and currently, the MAGAlithic U.S. Secretary of Commerce is now also a subject of the criminal and ethics complaints filed on June 22, 2018 by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and OGE: https://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/wilbur-ross/.

The guy is an Energizer Bunny when it comes to alleged ethics violations, tirelessly going where no Government official should be going at all...


The guy has been recently in the news with the following Forbes look at his fortune and pained efforts at divesting from it: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/06/18/lies-china-and-putin-solving-the-mystery-of-wilbur-ross-missing-fortune-trump-commerce-secretary-cabinet-conflicts-of-interest/#78356eb97e87.  Which contains the following allegation:

Swimming in the cleaned up waters of the drained Washington Swamp, Mr. Ross, has actively sought to inject unwanted and unwarranted 'transparency' not into his own dealings and disclosures, but into... U.S. Census 2020, earning him another set of law suits: "In March, Ross ordered that the 2020 Decennial Census include a question about the citizenship of all U.S. residents for the first time since 1950 — leading to a slew of lawsuits around the country..." (see https://nypost.com/2018/06/06/wilbur-ross-sued-over-citizenship-question-on-2020-census/).

Mr Ross has been now accused of insider dealing in Bank of Ireland: http://www.businessinsider.com/wilbur-ross-accused-of-insider-trading-with-irish-bank-stake-2017-12, and his firm was fined by SEC for improper disclosures of fees it charged the investors: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wlross-sec-idUSKCN10Z2YJ/ and was sued for overcharging: https://www.wsj.com/articles/wilbur-ross-sued-over-fees-by-firms-former-executives-1510793229.  Then, there are shady issues with Mr. Ross' past involving U.S. steel companies: https://theintercept.com/2018/03/05/steel-tariffs-wilbur-ross-pollution/.

And on... and on... and on... Often described as a Wall Street 'shark', the dude is really a giant cat fish, enjoying murky waters of the Washington's mud beds.

No comments: