Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary designee, failed to disclose $100 million in assets to the U.S. Senate as he was legally required to do. The New York Times broke the news just as Mnuchin is set to appear in his confirmation hearings before the Senate Finance Committee.
And that is not all. Steve Mnuchin also failed to inform the Senate that he served as a director of an investment fund called Dune Capital International, incorporated in the infamous off shore tax haven the Cayman Islands. Steve Mnuchin also failed to disclose that he has management posts in seven other investment funds.
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Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, failed to disclose nearly $100 million in assets https://t.co/0s2g7ba4Dp
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 19, 2017
Democratic staff members of the Senate Finance Committee wrote about Steve Mnuchin in a memo quoted in the Times, “In his revised questionnaire, Mr. Mnuchin disclosed several additional financial assets, including $95 million worth of real estate – a co-op in New York City, a residence in Southampton, New York, a residence in Los Angeles, California, and $15 million in real estate holdings in Mexico,”
According to the memo, Treasury Secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin claimed that his failure to include the information earlier was due to a “misunderstanding of the questionnaire.”
Whether this was an honest mistake or not is not the issue. If it was, then it makes Steve Mnuchin look like someone who is not responsible enough to be placed in charged of the largest economy in the world.
And Mr. Mnuchin already has a great deal of explaining to do before the Senate Finance Committee over how he made millions out of the whole sub prime mortgage debacle, while evicting people from their homes.
Forbes points out that Steve Mnuchin and his partners sold the mortgage bank OneWest to CIT Group for $3.4 billion in 2015. They created the bank out of IndyMac Bank after arranging for it to get a $1.6 billion bail out.
Steve Mnuchin’s confirmation hearing is already under way. In his opening statements, Mnuchin spoke the controversies which have revolved around his nomination to be the American Secretary of the Treasury. He said, “Since I was first nominated to serve as Treasury Secretary, I have been maligned as taking advantage of others’ hardships in order to earn a buck. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“In the press it has been said that I ran a foreclosure machine,” Steve Mnuchin added. “This is not true. On the contrary, I was committed to loan modifications intended to stop foreclosures.”
