Trumps pick for commerce secretary shares a business circle with Putin associates Panama papers

Cyprus is often used by Russia’s politically connected businessmen. In a March 2013 report, McClatchy detailed how Russians had come to dominate Cyprus as both customers and providers of financial services. Russian depositors and investors took losses that year in Cyprus when the European debt crisis nearly crumbled major banks.

Ross led a September 2014 rescue of Bank of Cyprus, the largest and most important bank in that island nation off the coast of Turkey. Ross’ investment group took an 18 percent stake in the bank, and he remained the bank’s vice chairman after his nomination by Trump.

He is expected to leave the bank soon, but his investment is likely to be lucrative. The bank’s shareholders last week approved taking it public, offering shares to investors on the London Stock Exchange at a price that could mean strong returns for existing shareholders. Last spring, European Union leaders announced that Cyprus had exited the rescue program for ailing banks, using only three-quarters of the billions offered.

The second largest shareholder in Bank of Cyprus is a Russian conglomerate called Renova Corp., which is headed by Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire and associate of Putin who served on the management board of Russian oil giant Rosneft, which was under U.S. financial sanctions in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article121981259.html#storylink=cpy

Billions for the Top few percent looking fantastic, middle class not so much, trickle on us jobs!