Wilbur Ross twice told federal ethics officials he divested stock — months before he finally did

In May 2017 and August 2018, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross submitted certified statements to federal ethics officials saying he had divested BankUnited stock, but he actually owned the stock until Oct. 1, the Center for Public Integrity reports.

Under his federal ethics agreement, Ross was supposed to sell his stock within 90 days of his Senate confirmation, which gave him until the end of May 2017. The Center for Public Integrity obtained a disclosure he filed in October which states that while he previously reported selling the stock, he had done so "based on a mistaken belief that the agent executed my sell order on that date." In an email to the Center for Public Integrity, Ross said he thought the shares were sold on May 31, 2017, and the October transaction report "corrected an earlier filing." The stock was valued at up to $15,000.

This isn't the first time Ross has submitted documents saying he divested stocks but hadn't; in November 2017, he told federal ethics officials he sold his Invesco Ltd. stock valued at between $10 million and $50 million, but he didn't actually sell it until December 2017. Austin Evers, executive director of the watchdog group American Oversight, told the Center for Public Integrity it's clear Ross is "not taking his ethics obligations seriously," and needs to be audited. "This is the latest in a series of omissions and claimed mistakes that have begun to add up to something that looks very suspicious," Evers said.

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