Commerce Department Has Been Quietly Investigating Wilbur Ross’ Finances For Years

Plus: Billionaires Who Made Last-Minute, Six-Figure Donations To Joe Biden

In November 2017, Forbes uncovered how Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross had been apparently lying about the size of his fortune for years. That story sparked some questions in the U.S. Senate, and Democrats fired off a letter to the Inspector General of the Commerce Department demanding answers. The Inspector General, in turn, opened up an investigation—which remained under wraps until last week. As the years dragged on, the investigation expanded, tracking additional Forbes reporting that revealed Ross had filed false ethics filings, taken conflict-prone meetings, and engaged in suspiciously timed trading.

Dan Alexander

Senior Editor, Money & Politics

Commerce Department Has Been Quietly Investigating Wilbur Ross’ Finances For Years

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has been under investigation for most of his tenure in office.

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Mind On Their Money

As the election season came to a close, Republicans and Democrats turned to some of their most important allies: billionaires. About a dozen tycoons donated to committees supporting Joe Biden in the final weeks of October, either directly or through their spouses. Among them: Jennifer Pritzker, who backed Donald Trump in 2016. Even without her, the president still had plenty of support from loyalists, including pipeline plutocrat Kelcy Warren and roofing tycoon Diane Hendricks.

Casino king Sheldon Adelson lived up to his reputation as a Republican megadonor, donating $35 million to three super-PACs supporting Donald Trump and the GOP during the second half of October, just as campaign season was winding down. That brought the total spending by Adelson and his wife, Miriam, to more than $215 million on the 2020 election.

A super-PAC that raised $16.9 million to oppose one of Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler’s challengers in the November 3 special election in Georgia received nearly two-thirds of its money from one of the senator’s very, very close allies: her husband.

It’s not possible to track every dollar that flows into the American political system. That’s because so-called “dark money” groups allow donors to give unlimited sums without disclosing their identities. In one case, Forbes figured it out anyway, revealing that a little-known California billionaire Donald Friese contributed $1 million to a “dark money” group supporting Donald Trump.

One billionaire who didn’t give big money this election cycle? Donald Trump. The president, who refused to contribute a single dollar to his own campaign, instead sucked money out of the effort by using his private companies to charge for things like rent, food and lodging. The result: $2.7 million of donor money turned into $2.7 million of Trump money.