Magazine says it removed him from 2016 rich list after financial disclosures showed less than $700m in assets

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Forbes reported Tuesday that the US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, exaggerated his net worth by $2bn, which the magazine said it discovered after he protested being removed from its 2016 list of the 400 richest people in the US.

Forbes cited years of internal reporting notes and conversations with Ross, an investor who has been described as “the king of bankruptcy” for buying beaten-down companies with the potential to deliver profits.

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The magazine, which estimated Ross to be worth $2.9bn in its 2016 list, said it decided to remove Ross from the list after financial disclosure forms filed after his cabinet nomination showed less than $700m in assets.

Forbes says Ross protested, claiming that he had transferred more than $2bn to family trusts between the 2016 election and Donald Trump’s inauguration. But when that claim raised ethics and tax questions, the Department of Commerce issued a statement saying there had been no such transfer.

Forbes said it was now “confident that the money never existed. It seems clear that Ross lied to us.”

The commerce department did not respond to requests for comment.

Ross, the Trump administration’s point man on trade and manufacturing policy, is also facing questions over leaked documents showing that he has a stake in a company that does business with a gas producer partly owned by the son-in-law of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Ross told Britain’s Sky network that he disclosed his investment in Navigator Holdings, a shipping giant that counts the Russian gas and petrochemical producer Sibur among its major customers. The commerce secretary says US ethics officials who reviewed his finances did not ask him to sell his Navigator stock.