Mnuchin Faces Ethics Questions Over Ties to Film Industry

Source: The New York Times



By Alan Rappeport and Ana Swanson
March 14, 2019

WASHINGTON — “Wonder Woman,” the 2017 film that Steven Mnuchin helped produce before becoming Treasury secretary, hauled in about $90 million at the box office in China in 2017. It was the film’s most successful international market and a roaring success for an American superhero export. But because of China’s strict laws for foreign films, Warner Brothers received just a small fraction of those revenues.

Now, as Treasury secretary and one of the lead negotiators in trade talks with China, Mr. Mnuchin has been personally pushing Beijing to give the American film industry greater access to its markets — a change that could be highly lucrative to his former industry. While Mr. Mnuchin divested from his Hollywood film-financing firm after joining the Trump administration, he maintains ties to the industry through his wife, the actress and filmmaker Louise Linton.

Those remaining ties are raising questions among ethics officials and lawmakers about whether a conflict of interest exists. On Thursday, Mr. Mnuchin will testify before lawmakers in the House and Senate, where he is expected to face questions about his ongoing financial ties, including to the film industry. The United States Office of Government Ethics still has not certified his 2018 financial disclosure, which is the first since his marriage to Ms. Linton.

Access to China’s film market has not been a primary issue in the trade talks, which have focused largely on Beijing’s treatment of foreign companies, including its requirement that firms hand over valuable technology, its barriers to foreign business and its subsidies to Chinese firms.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/us/politics/mnuchin-china-trade-hollywood.html?partner=rss&emc=rss