By Sarah McGregor
Bloomberg
Commerce Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross’s financial disclosure showed the vast range of the billionaire’s wealth, which includes holdings of Apple and Boeing shares and cash accounts holding more $150 million combined.
The 57-page filing also said he has an art collection valued at more than $50 million, according to a statement posted by the Office of Government Ethics on Tuesday. The disclosures were made public a day before a Senate confirmation hearing when Ross will be asked about how he’ll avoid conflicts of interests while serving in public office.
His assets, disclosed in ranges, are worth at least $336 million — though that number doesn’t capture the upper end of the range, the fillings show. Bloomberg values his fortune at about $2.9 billion.
Ross, 79, is a veteran private-equity investor who has served on the board of companies ranging from Luxembourg-based steel giant ArcelorMittal to the Bank of Ireland. He also is an avid collector of Chinese art, according to a recent profile in Politico Magazine.
Before the election, Ross decried what he perceived to be a penchant toward China bashing in the U.S. But during the campaign, he co-authored a report that described the world as “riddled with trade cheaters,” with China the biggest culprit.
Ross would be one of the most seasoned former business leaders on President-elect Donald Trump’s economic team. As a private-equity investor, he restructured companies across a range of industries including steel, banking and textiles.
But Ross’s private-equity background opens him to the same line of attack Mitt Romney faced when he ran for president in 2012 — that he was a corporate raider who flipped companies for profit while firing employees. The Center For American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, says his massive business holdings represent a major conflict of interest.
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