Wilbur Ross Confirms He Made False Statement

Dan Alexander

Forbes Staff Jun 18, 2018, 07:17pm

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross told federal ethics officials last November that he had gotten rid of all assets that he promised to divest as a member of President Trump's cabinet. But he admitted that was not true in a new filing released Monday, after Forbes reported that Ross made a false statement to ethics officials.

In the new filing, the commerce secretary said he had made a mistake. Knowingly making false or misleading statements to ethics officials is against the law.

On the filing, the secretary of commerce said he still held stock in investment firm Invesco until last December – more than a month after he claimed to have divested the assets. “Unfortunately, I mistakenly believed that all of my previously held Invesco stock was sold,” Ross said in the filing, adding, “In December 2017, I discovered that the previously held stock had not been sold. I then promptly sold these shares.”

In addition, he admitted that he took out a short position in Sun Bancorp, another company he had promised to divest, the day before he told officials that he had divested his assets. Ross said he mistakenly believed he had not previously sold a stake in the bank. “To remedy this, I executed a short sale of Sun Bancorp shares, then closed the position when I understood it was not necessary because my holdings in Sun Bancorp had been sold.”