Wilbur Ross - Wikipedia article

[Music] [Music] wilbur louis ross jr is an american businessman who served as the 39th united states secretary of commerce from 2017-2021 a member of the republican party ross was previously chairman and chief executive officer of w.l rossen and company from 2000 to 2017. before founding w.o ross and company ross ran the bankruptcy restructuring practice at nm rothschild and sons in new york beginning in the late 1970s in april 2000 ross left rothschild to found w.l ross and company ross was a banker known for acquiring and restructuring failed companies in industries such as steel coal telecommunications and textiles later selling them for a profit after operations improved a record that had earned him the moniker king of bankruptcy ross has been chairman or lead director of more than 100 companies operating in more than 20 different countries named by bloomberg markets as one of the 50 most influential people in global finance ross was previously an adviser to new york city mayor rudy giuliani on privatization and was appointed by president bill clinton to the board of the u.s russia investment fund on november 30 2016 then president-elect donald trump announced that he would nominate ross to become the u.s secretary of commerce on february 27 2017 the senate confirmed him in a 72-27 vote he was sworn into office on february 28 2017 at age 79 he was the oldest first-time cabinet appointee in u.s history chapter 1 early life and education ross was born on november 28 1937 in weehawken new jersey and grew up in nearby north bergen new jersey his father wilbur louis ross was a lawyer who later became a judge and his mother agnes a descendant of irish people was valedictorian from sacred heart academy in hoboken and taught third grade in north bergen for 40 years.ross attended xavier high school a catholic school and college preparatory school in manhattan he ran track and was captain of the rifle team he graduated in 1955. in 1959 he received a bachelor's degree from yale college his father's alma mater at yale ross edited one of the literary magazines and worked at the radio station his dream was to be a writer he enrolled in an english course that required writing a thousand words by 10 am every day after two weeks he ran out of things to write about and dropped the course his faculty advisor at yale helped him get his first summer job on wall street in 1961 he received a master of business administration degree at harvard business school chapter 2 business career chapter 2 section 1 early career in 1963 he joined what became wood struthers and winthrop there he liquidated the portfolio of its venture capital affiliate.he then worked for faulkner dawkins and sullivan an institutional securities research company where he rose to become president of its investment banking operation the firm was sold to what became shearson layman chapter 2 section 2 ross child investments in 1976 ross began his 24-year employment with the new york city office of rothschild and company where he ran the bankruptcy restructuring advisory practice by 1998 ross was involved in eight of the 25 biggest bankruptcies to date including drexel burnham lambert texaco public service of new hampshire and eastern airlines.in the 1980s donald trump's three casinos in atlantic city were under threat of foreclosure from lenders ross who was then the senior managing director of rothschild and company represented investors in the casino along with carl eichen ross convinced bondholders to strike a deal that allowed trump to keep control of the casinos chapter 2 section 3 w.o ross and company in november 1997 under rothschild and company ross started a 200 million dollar fund to invest in distressed securities in its first year it earned a 15.2 return in april 2000 just before the dot-com bubble burst ross founded w.l ross and company and raised 450 million dollars to buy the fund from rothschild and make additional investments by 2003 the fund had averaged a 30 return.in 2006 ross sold w l ross and company to invescape chapter 2 section 3 subsection 2 international steel group in february 2002 w l ross and company founded international steel group he first agreed to buy the assets of bankrupting temco vought for 325 million dollars paying 11 per tonne of capacity when other firms were trading for 200 per ton of capacity a few weeks later george w bush slapped a 30 tariff on many types of imported steel a year later w.l ross and company acquired the assets of bankrupt bethlehem steel as part of the bankruptcy reorganizations these companies shifted their huge pension liabilities to the government-backed pension benefit guarantee corporation.ross had support from the united steelworkers negotiating a deal to save some jobs.in april 2005 wr ross and company sold international steel group to middle steel company for 4.5 billion dollars half in cash and half in stock and made 12.5 times its original investment ross personally made a 260 million dollar profit on his 3 million dollar investment and gained the seat on the board of directors of middle steel chapter 2 section 3 subsection 3 international textile group after outbidding warren buffett who offered 579 million dollars w.l ross and company acquired burlington industries for 620 million dollars and combined it with cone mills in 2004 to form international textile group dot in 2005 ross acquired 77.3 percent of safety components international for 51.20 cents million.in october 2006 ross had international textile group acquire safety components international ross controlled both companies and in february 2014 ross paid 81 million dollars to settle a lawsuit brought by shareholders that ross breached his fiduciary duty when structuring the merger international textile group was acquired by private equity firm platinum equity in 2016. chapter 2 section 3 subsection 4 international automotive components group international automotive components group was formed in 2006 by w.l ross and company and investment funds managed by franklin templeton investments in 2006 the company acquired the european operations of lea corporation and in 2007 it acquired ly as north american interiors operations in 2005 to 2007 iac purchased several divisions of collins and aikman in september 2005 investors led by ross invested 100 million dollars in oxford automotive for 25 of the company in 2006 oxford merged with wagon automotive chapter 2 section 3 subsection 5 international coal group w l ross and company founded international coal group in 2004 after acquiring the assets of several bankrupt coal companies the united mine workers of america protested the reorganization as it led to changes in health care and pensions for the existing employees.in 2006 the sago mine disaster an explosion in a coal mine indirectly owned by international coal group likely caused by a lightning strike led to the deaths of 12 miners the mine had 12 roof collapses in 2005 and u.s department of labor data showed 208 citations for safety violations in that same period including 21 times for build-up of toxic gases miners and their families accused ross of ignoring safety violations ross defended his company's management of the mine dot in 2011 arch coal acquired international coal group for 3.4 billion dollars chapter 2 section 3 subsection 6 navigator gas by january 2016 w l ross and company was the biggest investor in navigator gas a liquefied gas shipping company chapter 2 section 4 overstating of net worth in february 2017 forbes reported that ross has a net worth of 2.5 billion dollars financial disclosure forms filed by ross after his nomination as commerce secretary showed less than 700 million dollars in assets and forbes later revised his net worth to 600 million dollars chapter 2 section 5 grift allegations in august 2018 forbes reported that ross's business partners and workers accused ross of illicitly siphoning or stealing a total of 120 million dot in december 2017 a report by two irish financial analysts commissioned by luke ming flanagan an irish member of the european parliament accused ross of insider trading as part of a 2014 sale of shares in the bank of ireland by w.l ross and company chapter 2 section 6 overcharging of fees in august 2016 ross agreed to reimburse investors 11.8 million dollars and pay a fine of 2.3 million dollars to settle a u.s securities and exchange commission probe into the overcharging of fees by w.l ross and company the company had self-reported the issue and did not admit any liability.on august 7 2018 five former w l ross and company employees and investors claimed the firm was charging its investors fees on money it had lost including allegedly charging fees on one investment that was essentially worthless chapter 3 united states secretary of commerce on november 30 2016 then president-elect donald trump announced that he would nominate ross for united states secretary of commerce on february 27 2017 the senate confirmed ross in a 72-27 vote ross was sworn into office on february 28 2017. ross took office at the age of 79 making him the oldest first-time cabinet appointee in u.s history the previous record holder was philip klutznick who took office at the age of 72. chapter 3 section 1 trade issues chapter 3 section 1 subsection 2 uk trade post brexit in december 2016 after being designated by trump as his nominee to lead the commerce department ross said in a speech to cypriot financiers that brexit was a god-given opportunity for other countries such as ireland and germany to draw business away from the united kingdom's financial services industry in 2017 ross said that a trade deal with the uk was a low priority for the trump administration however he outlined possible terms no u.s trade deal with the uk was concluded although ross and treasury secretary steve mnuchin stated in january 2020 that they hoped to have an easy agreement with the uk that year chapter 3 section 1 subsection 3 tariffs and trade wars in september 2017 ross traveled to belgium as part of efforts to de-escalate the u.s china trade war in february 2018 the commerce department recommended an increase of tariffs in aluminium and steel imports on march 1 2018 trump implemented a 25 tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminium imports in september 2018 ross said that the tariffs are meant to modify china's behavior in 2018 under trump and ross the u.s imposed tariffs on the import of steel and aluminium from the european union canada and mexico ross dismissed concerns that the tariffs would increase costs to u.s consumers harm the u.s economy and damage relations with u.s allies saying that tariffs were blips on the radar screen and that the eu will get over this in due course he also dismissed concerns over eu retaliatory tariffs in november 2019 ross indicated that the trump administration might now also impose tariffs on imports of automobiles from the eu in january 2020 however ross said that the trump administration might still impose tariffs on european cars despite ongoing trade talks also in january 2020 ross threatened retaliation if the eu adopted a proposed carbon tax comparing it to a proposed eu digital services tax to which the administration has also threatened tariffs in response chapter 3 section 2 ban of huawei in january 2019 ross was present with other american politicians when 23 criminal charges were announced against huawei and its cfo manguanjo including financial fraud money laundering conspiracy against the united states industrial espionage mail and wire fraud obstruction of justice and violation of sanctions against iran in july 2019 ross stated that the united states will keep huawei on its blacklist but will allow licensed sales chapter 3 section 3 accusations of being out of touch in may 2017 ross accompanied trump on his first foreign visit to saudi arabia where ross generated controversy after heralding the president's visit as a success due to a lack of protests unaware that the saudis had banned public protest and demonstrations since 2011. during the 2018-19 federal government shutdown ross was criticized as being out of touch with average american citizens after expressing bewilderment about why furloughed unpaid workers and contractors would choose to visit food banks rather than apply for a personal loan chapter 3 section 4 non-disclosures in february 2019 ross's financial disclosure was rejected by the office of government ethics after he reported that he had sold bank stock when in fact he held onto them.ross failed to disclose a lawsuit from ex-business partner david storper on his financial disclosure forms ross settled the lawsuit for nine million dollars after being subpoenaed for information that he did not want to disclose chapter 3 section 5 conflicts of interest from failure to divest in june 2018 an investigation by forbes found that ross while secretary of commerce owned stakes in companies co-owned by the chinese government a shipping firm tied to vladimir putin's inner circle a cypriot bank reportedly caught up in the robert mueller investigation and that ross had failed to divest his financial holdings instead putting them in a trust for his family members contradicting ross's written statement in november 2017 that he had divested all his financial holdings ross may have broken the law in doing so these holdings posed a conflict of interest for ross as the trump administration was in a position to affect the value of the holdings.ross was confirmed by the senate in february 2017 and he agreed to sell his stocks before the end of may 2017. in july 2018 it was reported that roster vested from his stock in invesco originally worth between 10 million dollars and 50 million dollars in december 2017. between the end of may and the sale date in december the value of ross's holdings in invesco increased by between approximately 1.2 million dollars to 6 million depending on the number of shares he owned which was not disclosed ross said that he mistakenly believed that all previously held invesco stock was sold on july 13 2018 after he received a letter from the government's top ethics watchdog warning of potential for a serious criminal violation ross announced that he will sell all his remaining stock.in october 2018. documents showed that ross had participated in a meeting with executives from chevron corporation where they discussed oil and gas developments tax reform and trade issues ross's wife owned a stake in chevron worth at least 250 000 at the time.in october 2020 it was reported that ross had continued to serve on the board of a chinese joint venture until january 2019 at the same time the united states and china were engaged in a trade war chapter 3 section 6 insider trading allegations while secretary of commerce ross shorted at least five stocks in june 2018 it was revealed that ross shorted stock after he knew of an upcoming report with information that would adversely affect the company but before the story was published ross later closed out the position at a substantial profit after the story was published ethics experts said that the shorting was alarming given that federal office holders are prohibited from profiting on non-public information ross denied that he had engaged in insider trading ross had shorted two additional stocks in june 2018 and additional stocks in july 2018 chapter 3 section 7 2020 census citizenship question as secretary of commerce ross oversaw the census bureau and the 2020 census slash in december of 2018 he approved sending https colon slash apps.npr.org document slash document.html d dot equals four six one nine three nine one page three thousand nine hundred and eighty four of administrative record for census hash document slash p one slash a four four three o one one in the form of a letter that was later copied by james uthmea into a memo a request to the department of justice to add a question to the census for the first time since the 1940s asking about the u.s citizenship status of the members of the responding household specifically ross sought to amend the decennial census to add the controversial question is this person a citizen of the united states new york solicitor general barbara underwood led a lawsuit filed by 18 states and many cities to attempt to stop the trump administration from adding a citizenship question on the 2020 census the department of justice supported the department of commerce u.s federal judge jessie m furman ruled against the department of justice and wilbur ross stating that if the trial is delayed the appeals process may not be done by summer 2019 the printing deadline of the census furman blocked a census question proposal on january 15 2019 saying ross had violated a veritable smorgasbord of federal rules asserting ross and his aides made false or misleading statements under oath and that he sought to add the question to the census based on a pretext the house of representatives held ross in contempt of congress and accused ross of lying about the citizenship questions origins specifically ross had testified under oath that the addition of the question was prompted by doj when in fact he had made the request via the hopefully letter he had transmitted it became known in july 2021 that the justice department inspector general had determined ross had misled congress but the trump justice department declined to prosecute him chapter 3 section 7 subsection 2 contempt of congress ross and the trump administration refused to comply with a congressional subpoena issued by the house oversight committee for documents regarding efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census after trump asserted executive privilege over the subpoenaed documents the house oversight committee voted to hold ross and attorney general william barr in criminal contempt of congress with the committee's chairman saying that ross and barr had blatantly obstructed our ability to do congressional oversight in june 2019 the house held barr and ross in contempt of congress on a mostly party-line 230-198 vote this was only the second time in u.s history that a sitting cabinet member was held in contempt the vote signified an escalation of the house of representatives battles with the trump white house over congressional oversight but was largely symbolic as trump's justice department did not act on the criminal citation chapter 3 section 7 subsection 3 supreme court decision on june 27 2019 the supreme court in department of commerce v new york left the citizenship question block from the 2020 census in part because of the government's explanation for why it was added in the supreme court opinion there was a significant mismatch between secretary ross's decision to add the question and his stated reason that the question would support department of justice's voter rights act chapter 3 section 8 ownership in navigator gas in november 2017 leaked documents known as the paradise papers showed that during his confirmation hearings ross had failed to clearly disclose a financial interest in navigator gas a shipping company which transports petrochemicals for russian gas and petrochemicals company siber ross had failed to clearly disclose ties to russian interests during his confirmation hearings while his confirmation was pending ross promised in a letter to the office of congressional ethics to cut ties with more than 80 financial entities in which he has interests this letter played a key role in securing his confirmation however according to the leaked documents while he did divest some holdings he did not disclose the full extent of those he retained speaking about his financial ties to navigator ross said the media was making a lot more out of it than it deserves and there is nothing wrong with it the fact that it happens to be called a russian company doesn't mean there is any evil in it a spokesman for ross stated that ross has never met shamolov tinchenko or mielson and that ross recuses himself from any matters focused of transoceanic shipping vessels but has been generally supportive of the administration's sanctions of russian and venezuelan entities chapter 3 section 9 dysfunction of the department of commerce in july 2019 politico reported that the commerce department under ross reached new heights of distraction an outside source as well as multiple senior staffers described ross as seen as kind of irrelevant and morale at the department as very low because there's not a lot of confidence in the secretary ross allegedly left his department leaderless due to the large amounts of time spent in the white house trying to win support from president trump also ross allegedly tends to fall asleep in meetings to the extent that senior staffers have avoided putting him in critical meetings where he could fall asleep reports of ross's inability to stay awake have gone back as far as may 2017 where in a meeting in rio had with the arab islam american summit during president donald trump's speech ross appeared to have been completely asleep chapter 3 section 10 noah slash hurricane dorian controversy on september 1 2019 president donald trump made the incorrect claim that hurricane dorian presented a major threat to alabama minutes later the birmingham alabama branch of the national weather service which is part of the commerce department reported that alabama was not at risk the new york times reported that ross had threatened a few days late to fire high-level noah staff unless the agency disavowed its contradiction of trump's false claim leading to a september 6th no statement from an unidentified spokesperson endorsing trump's position and declaring that the new birmingham's contradiction of trump was incorrect the commerce department denied that ross had threatened to fire any noaa staff over forecasting and public statements about hurricane dorian later reporting said that ross had made the call from greece where he was travelling after being told to fix the problem by acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney reportedly on trump's orders the noah's disavowal prompted an outcry from scientists and others who said that the agency's failure to back its hurricane forecasters damaged its credibility.a subsequent report by the national academy of public administration commissioned by noaa found that noah's leadership violated the agency's scientific integrity policy by releasing a statement backing trump's false statement about hurricane dorian's path the office of inspector general of the commerce department separately investigated the incident and concluded that the commerce department ran a flawed process that did not sufficiently engage noah and went against the interests of the agency and the national weather service in a july 2020 letter to ross inspector general peggy gustafsson expressed deep concern that the department was blocking oig from publicly releasing its report by asserting amorphous and generalized privileges the letter prompted democratic senator maria cantwell the ranking member of the senate commerce science and transportation committee to call upon ross to immediately cease this campaign to keep the public in the dark the house science committee also probed ross's role in the issuance of the noah statement chapter 3 section 11 coronavirus pandemic in a january 30th 2020 interview with maria bartoromo of fox business when asked if the covet-19 outbreak in china would threaten the u.s economy ross said i think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to north america i don't want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate very malignant disease the fact is it does give business yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain the outbreak became a pandemic and caused a major recession with 10 million americans filing unemployment claims and unemployment rising more than during the entirety of the great recession chapter 3 section 12 2020 census count early completion due to delays and operation challenges brought about by the covert 19 pandemic ross and u.s census bureau director stephen dillingham announced on april 13 2020 that they will extend the time frame for field data collection and self-response for the 2020 united states census to october 31 2020. however on august 3 2020 the census bureau announced that they were moving this deadline up to september 30 2020. community advocates and former census bureau employees expressed concern that this shortened time frame would result in poor quality data and a significant undercount that would disproportionately affect traditionally hard-to-count groups such as ethnic minorities young adults and people living in rural areas.on september 24 2020 federal district court judge lucy coe issued a preliminary injunction against the plan to end counting on september 30 rather than the scheduled october 31st saying the commerce department never articulated a satisfactory explanation she also blocked a plan to deliver the count results to the white house by december 31 rather than the original april 2021 delivery date when trump might be out of office on the next business day ross announced the count would end october 5th as the administration appealed co's decision to the 9th circuit co subsequently called the october 5th end data violation of her court order and prepared to begin contempt proceedings against ross and the commerce department the appeals court rejected the administration's appeal and the census bureau announced on october 2nd that the count would continue until october 31st however the counted ultimately ended at 11 59 p.m on october 15 after the administration appealed to the supreme court which issued a 7-1 ruling allowing the count to finish early chapter 4 honours in 1999 ross was awarded the order of industrial service merit medal by south korean president kim dae-jung for his assistance during the 1997 asian financial crisis he was awarded the american irish historical society gold medal in 2014 in recognition of his work in ireland and irish american causes the japanese government awarded ross the order of the rising sun gold and silver star in recognition of his service as chairman of the board of new york's japan society his work to promote and strengthen the japanese economy and his relief efforts after the 2011 tohoku earthquake and tsunami chapter 5 organizational memberships ross is a past director of the turnaround management association and member of its hall of fame ross has been the vice chairman of the board of bank of cyprus the largest bank in cyprus after he and his investors invested 400 million euros in the bank in 2014. as of january 2012 ross was the leader of the secret wall street fraternity kappa beta phi ross served on the board of trustees of the brookings institution he is also on the board of advisors of yale school of management and is a former board member of the yale university art gallery he served as international council member of the mosaic arts decoratives paris and president of the american friends of the renee magritte museum in brussels ross has been on the board of directors of navigator gas since march 2012 chapter 6 political views chapter 6 section 1 support for democratic party and switch although he was an early supporter of donald trump's presidential campaign ross was previously a registered democrat served as an officer of the new york state democratic committee and held fundraisers for democratic candidates at his apartment in new york city he served under president bill clinton on the board of the u.s russia investment fund in january 1998 he funded 2.25 million dollars in seed money into the campaign of his then wife betsy mccoy who was seeking the democratic nomination for governor of new york since at least 2011 ross has donated to republican candidates and organizations ross became a registered republican in november 2016. chapter 6 section 2 privatization in the 1990s new york city mayor rudy giuliani appointed ross as his privatization advisor he helped push to privatize the city's public broadcasting stations on the port authority of new york and new jersey and worked to sell off empty land lots to businesses chapter 6 section 3 trade policy ross has described himself as pro-sensible trade and said that the u.s government should provide access to our markets to those countries who play fair play by the rules and give everybody a fair chance to compete those who do not should not get away with it they should be punished initially in favor of the trans-pacific partnership ross has said that after examining the agreement he found it was not consistent with what was advertised in 2004 the economist described ross as a supporter of protectionism.at the 2018 world economic forum in davos ross responded to concerns of a trade war by noting that there have always been trade wars the difference now is u.s troops are now coming to the ramparts chapter 7 personal life ross married judith nodini in 1961. they divorced in 1995. after the divorce nodini sued ross for failing to transfer stop by the agreed upon deadline and ross countersued they had two children jessica colby ross and amanda colby ross amanda attended the french culinary institute and founded a baking company while jessica worked for sotheby's in 1995 ross married his second wife lieutenant governor of new york betsy mccoy they divorced in 2000. on october 9 2004 ross married his third wife hilary geary ross a society writer for quest magazine.in december 2016 why his manhattan penthouse apartment at the briarcliff was on the market for 21 million dollars ross purchased a 10 000 square foot house in the massachusetts heights neighborhood of washington d.c from adrian arched for 10 750 000 in 2018 he purchased a 3.2 million house in the berkshires he also owns two multi-million dollar properties in palm beach florida.ross owns an art collection valued at 150 million dollars that includes pieces ranging from western surrealists to contemporary eastern sculptures ross owns 25 works by rene magritte valued at 100 million dollars including some of the artists most valuable paintings such as the pilgrim chapter 7 section 1 philanthropy ross donated 10 million for the construction of the new campus of yale school of management [Music]