News

Steve Mnuchin Plans to Sell Assets as Treasury Secretary

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By Daniel J. Solomon January 12, 2017

Steve Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, has announced that he will sell off some investments and quit a number of corporate board, if the Senate approves his nomination.

According to a letter mailed to senators, Mnuchin has pledged to liquidate his interests in companies including Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup, Microsoft and Verizon within three months of confirmation. He said that he would step away from his movie production company Dune Entertainmtnet within four months of the confirmation. He also promised to leave the boards of multiple organizations, including New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

If filings are correct, Mnuchin is worth upward of $150 million, a hefty sum but certainly not the largest in Trump’s cabinet of billionaires and corporate executives. He won the confidence of Trump by serving as the president-elect’s finance chief during the campaign, and has for a long time been in the inner circle of the Trump Tower clique.

Mnuchin’s nomination is sure to face criticism from Democrats concerned about his ties to Wall Street and his past activities as owner of the OneWest bank, which has been scrutinized for its mortgage and foreclosure practices. Due to his large and far-flung investments, he might also run into the same questions about conflicts of interest and self-dealing that have dogged the president-elect himself.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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