Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Sen. Ron Wyden, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen requesting documents on dealings that former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had with sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait during his time in office. Today’s letter is part of is part of Congress’s ongoing examination of whether former senior Trump Administration officials improperly traded on their government positions, misused U.S. government resources, and made foreign policy decisions to further personal financial interests.
“We are concerned that Mr. Mnuchin solicited over a billion dollars from Middle Eastern monarchies after repeatedly interacting with government officials from these nations in his capacity as Treasury Secretary, including in the closing days of the Trump Administration,” the Chairs wrote. “Secretary Mnuchin’s rapid pivot to the private sector and his frequent meetings with foreign government officials—both before and after leaving office—raise serious concerns that he may have promoted his own financial interests while in office, rather than working on behalf of the American people.”
During his four-year tenure as Secretary, Mr. Mnuchin made an unprecedented 18 visits to four Gulf monarchies—more than double the eight visits his three predecessors reportedly made combined. He met with the heads of sovereign wealth funds from those nations at least 27 times while in office.
In the final 100 days of the Trump Administration, Mr. Mnuchin embarked on two multi-country trips to the Middle East where he met with sovereign wealth officials from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the U.A.E. On January 21, 2021, his very first day out of office and just ten days after he returned from his last Middle Eastern trip, Mr. Mnuchin founded the investment fund Liberty Strategic Capital (Liberty) to raise money from the monarchies he had recently negotiated with in his official capacity. According to records recently obtained from the Secret Service, in early 2021 Mr. Mnuchin traveled to the monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, nations he had visited weeks earlier as Treasury Secretary. In total, during his first five months after leaving office, Mr. Mnuchin made eleven visits to Gulf monarchies that invested in Liberty. During this time, he reportedly succeeded in raising billions of dollars from those monarchies’ sovereign wealth funds.
Mr. Mnuchin also staffed his private investment fund with a coterie of former senior government officials involved in setting U.S. government policy under the Trump Administration, including several with whom he traveled to the region to conduct official business.
“The speed with which Mr. Mnuchin transitioned from official to personal travel to the Middle East, and the heavy overlap in his areas of focus, raise concerns that Mr. Mnuchin’s personal interests may have influenced U.S. official policy during his time in office and that he may have misused U.S. government funds on his final trips as a Cabinet Secretary,” the Chairs wrote.
The Chairs asked the Treasury Department to produce documents, including records and communications regarding Mr. Mnuchin’s trips to the Middle East and interactions with sovereign wealth funds from this region, by November 10, 2022.
Click here to read today’s letter.
Original source can be found here.
