A watchdog group has lodged formal ethics allegations against US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over his short sale of stock in New York-listed shipowner Navigator Holdings.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said that it filed both criminal and ethics complaints against the former Navigator chairman with the Department of Justice and the Office of Government Ethics.
The non-partisan group said Ross should be investigated for possible violations of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, known as the STOCK Act, or other laws. He also may have made false statements to the OGE related to his stake in investment manager Invesco, CREW said.
The complaints came after Ross, the private equity titan who had been Navigator's largest shareholder before selling off the shares, filed an ethics disclosure revealing the short sale before publication of an article about his link to the company.
“Secretary Ross’s actions appear to demonstrate a knowing and repeated disregard for his ethics obligations,” CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder said.
“The seriousness of his actions, potentially including using his position for insider trading, warrants an immediate and thorough investigation.”
Denial
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to TradeWinds' request for comment on the complaint, but Ross has previously denied insider trading.
CREW's complaint focuses on Ross's short sale of Navigator stock a day after a New York Times reporter sought comment about his links to Navigator and the company's ties to Russian energy firm Sibur, whose owners include Putin’s son-in-law Kirill Shamalov and Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko.
The short sales were worth between $100,000 and $250,000, according to forms filed by Ross with the OGE.
“Cabinet officials should not be lying about their ethics obligations, nor should they be using information they gleaned from their position for personal profit,” Bookbinder said. “The possibility that Secretary Ross may have tried to profit from his own ethics scandal takes this into uncharted territory.”
Ross has claimed that the short sale transactions were carried out in order to offload some remaining shares he held in Navigator. He had sold a stake in Navigator worth $12m last year but discovered additional shares related to his prior role on the London-headquartered company's board.
The commerce secretary has also rejected claims that an article about his holdings amounted to market moving information.
