Commerce chief: ‘Nothing improper’ about Navigator interest

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross found himself on the hot seat this weekend when leaked papers revealed that a Russian businessman on the U.S. sanctions list has ownership in a customer of Navigator Holdings, a company in Ross’s investment portfolio.    U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross found himself on the hot seat this weekend when papers leaked to a German newspaper by a Bermuda law firm and further reviewed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists showed that an ocean shipping company in which he has a financial interest has customer links to a Russian businessman on the U.S. sanctions list.
   According to various news accounts, Ross has offshore investments in Navigator Holdings, a carrier of petrochemicals that is valued at upwards of $10 million. One of that company’s largest charter customers is Sibur, whose major shareholder, Russian businessman Genady Timchenko, is on the U.S. government’s Russian sanctions list.
   In an interview aired on Bloomberg Television this morning about the so-called “Paradise Papers,” Ross said he has done “nothing illegal, nothing even improper at all,” and that his financial stake in Navigator Holdings was disclosed in his Form 278, which was reviewed by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) prior to his appointment to commerce secretary. 
   Ross maintained that he had no involvement in the negotiations with Sibur which were concluded before he joined the Navigator board, nor did he ever meet with those Russian individuals on the U.S. sanctions list.
   “There is no conflict of interest,” Ross told the news program. “We don’t regulate shipping, and that’s why the OGE let me retain shipping interests.”
   Ross said he was already in the process of selling off his interest in the company, but said “it’s not because of this.”