WASHINGTON — Just hours after engaging in a testy exchange Thursday with Steve Mnuchin, the nominee for Treasury secretary, Sen. Sherrod Brown said he will vote against his confirmation.

In a statement, Brown, D-Ohio, said Mnuchin’s “cozy ties to Wall Street raise serious red flags that demand serious answers.” Instead, Brown complained that nothing the former Goldman Sachs investment banker “said today convinced me that he’s up to the task.”

Brown, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, had not been expected to vote for Mnuchin, who has come under fire from Democrats for what they say were aggressive foreclosure tactics employed by OneWest Financial, a company controlled by Mnuchin until 2015.

Because Republicans control the Senate, Mnuchin still is likely to be confirmed.

Earlier in the day, as Mnuchin testified before the Senate Finance Committee, Brown sharply questioned him over OneWest’s foreclosure practices. In rapid fashion, Brown asked a series of questions and demanded Mnuchin answer with a simple yes or no.

“Is it true … that OneWest foreclosed on 60,000 families nationwide and denied three-fourths of mortgage modification applications?” Brown asked.

“I am not aware of that,” Mnuchin replied.

Brown then asked if OneWest violated federal law “by initiating foreclosures on 54 active-duty military families? Yes or no?”

Mnuchin acknowledged that “we unfortunately did foreclose on certain people in the military. It was quite unfortunate, it was inappropriate. We responded to those people and made them whole.”

Toward the end of their exchange, a seemingly frustrated Mnuchin told Brown, “It seems to me, in all due respect, you just want to shoot questions at me and not let me explain what are complicated issues.”

By contrast, member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, avoided confrontation and asked about changes in the tax law that he and other Republicans say would encourage U.S. multinational companies to return hundreds of billions of dollars they have kept abroad.

Under current law, U.S. companies only pay the corporate tax on money earned overseas when they return that money to the parent company in the United States. Mnuchin said he has spoken to several chief executive officers “who want to bring money back.”

Mnuchin also clashed with the committee over his failure to initially disclose to the committee nearly $100 million in assets and interests in a Cayman Islands corporation.

Mnuchin said the failure was an oversight that he had corrected when it was brought to his attention by staffers of the Senate Finance Committee. He said he had followed the advice of a lawyer who believed the disclosures were not necessary.

But Democrats seized on the issue.

"Never before has the Senate considered such an ethically challenged slate of nominees for key Cabinet positions," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Democrats suggested Mnuchin's oversight was because he did not want to reveal his involvement in a business that could be used as an offshore tax haven. Mnuchin denied that.

Information from The Associated Press was included in this story.

jtorry@dispatch.com

@jacktorry1