Wednesday, February 20, 2019

You can always count on Breitbart



The government's top ethics watchdog disclosed Tuesday that it had refused to certify a financial disclosure report from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

In a filing, the Office of Government Ethics said it wouldn't certify the 2018 annual filing by Ross because he didn't divest stock in a bank despite stating otherwise. The move could have legal ramifications for Ross and add to pressure for a federal probe.

[...]

A federal ethics agreement required that Ross divest stock worth between $1,000 and $15,000 in BankUnited by the end of May 2017, or within 90 days of the Senate confirming him to the Commerce post. He previously reported selling the stock twice, first in May 2017 and again in August 2018 as part of an annual disclosure required by OGE.

However, Ross didn't sell the stock in the agreed upon time period in 2017 and then made the two filings indicating he did, the Center for Public Integrity first reported in December 2018. The nonprofit, which obtained the OGE documents, claimed Ross's failure to sell the stock was "the latest in a series of inaccurate statements and omissions in Ross' personal financial statements."

OGE guidelines allow the Justice Department to impose civil fines or take criminal action in cases where an individual "knowingly" files false information.

  CNBC
What do you think? A warning maybe?
Ross said the "100 shares were worth approximately $3,700, an amount that federal regulations deem de minimis and below the threshold of a possible conflict of interest. Therefore, even if a BankUnited matter had come before the Department while I owned the shares — and I have not been made aware of any such matter — I would not have been disqualified from working on it.

[...]

"I previously reported selling the shares on May 31, 2017 based on a mistaken belief that the agent executed my sell order on that date."
You know, Ross is old, and sleeps a lot. I can believe he didn't have a clue about a lot of things. Not so sure his money was one of those things.




...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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