Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross failed to disclose business connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s family and inner circle on a required personal financial-disclosure form earlier this year, according to documents released over the weekend.
Mr. Ross said earlier this year that he would retain stakes owned by his private-equity firm in a gas-shipping company,
Navigator Holdings Ltd. He didn’t disclose that the company does millions of dollars in business—$68 million since 2014—with a Moscow petrochemicals company, Sibur, with close ties to the Kremlin, according to analysis by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. ...
Sibur’s owners include Kirill Shamalov, who is married to Mr. Putin’s younger daughter, and Gennady Timchenko, a co-founder of the Gunvor Group, a Cyprus-registered commodities trading firm. Mr. Timchenko
was among the first Russian businessmen to be sanctioned by the U.S. following Russia’s intervention in Ukraine’s Crimea region. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control called him a member of “the Russian leadership’s inner circle” and said Mr. Timchenko’s “activities in the energy sector have been directly linked to Putin.”
Sibur’s largest shareholder, Leonid Mikhelson, runs Novatek, Russia’s largest private natural-gas company, which also has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department for its ties to Mr. Putin. Mr. Timchenko owns 23% of the company. ...
“In concealing an ongoing financial relationship w/ Russian oligarchs, Sec. Ross misled me, Senate Commerce Committee & the American people,” Mr. Blumenthal wrote. “Why do so many Trump associates have such trouble disclosing relationships with Russia?” ...
Norm Eisen, the chairman of the ethics-advocacy organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, tweeted that Mr. Ross was violating the statute “unless made FULL [disclosure to] agency of ties [before] working on sanctions/shipping party matters.” ...
“I don’t know that he’s in any legal trouble. But the truth is, in essence, he was in business with people close to Vladimir Putin. I don’t know if the Senate would have confirmed him had they known that,” Ms. Clark said.