Watchdog files criminal complaint against Ross over stock holdings

A liberal watchdog group filed a criminal complaint Thursday against Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over meetings he held with representatives from companies included in his financial holdings.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Justice Department to probe whether Ross had violated criminal conflict of interest laws by meeting with firms lobbying the Commerce Department while the secretary had investments in them.

The complaint focuses on four meetings Ross held with representatives of Boeing Company, Chevron Corp., Greenbrier Companies and International Automotive Components (IAC) Group before the secretary divested from those companies.

“Secretary Ross continues to demonstrate a troubling disregard for his ethics obligations, and his systematic failures and omissions suggest that he may have knowingly and willfully violated the law,” said CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder.

“On several occasions, Secretary Ross has misled the American public about his financial interests, including failing to disclose holdings in companies directly lobbying the administration on issues he oversees.”

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Ross, a billionaire shipping and investment magnate, was forced to divest from hundreds of companies with business before the Commerce Department.

In his post Ross has played a critical role in forming and implementing President Trump’s trade agenda, including tariffs on imported steel, aluminum and Chinese goods broadly opposed by American manufacturers.

High-ranking federal officials are barred from being involved in matters affecting their own financial holdings over conflict of interest concerns. Cabinet chiefs and top regulators typically sell shares of corporate stocks that their work could affect, or recuse themselves from matters impacting their investments.

Ross has denied any wrongdoing.

“Secretary Ross has not violated any conflict of interest law or regulation,” Ross’s attorney Theodore Kassinger said earlier this week.

“He has not participated personally and substantially in, nor taken any action in regard to a particular matter that would have had a direct and predictable effect on his financial investments.”

Ross had pledged to pull his investments from Chevron and Boeing within 90 days and IAC-related investments within 180 days of his confirmation. But a Forbes analysis of Ross’s schedules found that the secretary met with all three companies before he divested from them.

CREW said in its complaint that Ross’s March 22 meeting with then-Chevron CEO John Watson, March 30 meeting with Boeing CEO Denis Muilenburg, and April 24 meeting with a trade group representing IAC could have violated federal law.

Ross didn’t unload his Chevron and Boeing shares until May, and held onto his IAC-related investments until October, according to federal records cited by CREW, meaning the secretary had financial stakes in companies seeking to influence his department.

CREW also pointed to Ross’s May 18 meeting with Bill Furman, the CEO of Greenbrier, a company the secretary did not divest from until May 31.

Ross also did not reveal his investment in Greenbrier in his first financial disclosure, released in November 2016, and later said it was “ inadvertently not included” on the form. He revealed his Greenbrier investment in March 2017.

“We should not have to question whether Secretary Ross is making critical policy decisions based on his own bottom line rather than what is best for our country,” Bookbinder said.

Ross has been subject to several criminal complaints and internal reviews over his failure to disclose certain investments and divest from companies under Commerce Department jurisdiction.

Liberal watchdog groups and Democratic lawmakers have called for investigations into whether Ross knowingly violated conflict of interest laws and made false statements about his financial holdings so he could profit.