Government ethics office scolds Wilbur Ross over stock sales

The Office of Government Ethics strongly reprimanded Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for his failure to completely divest himself of his far-flung stock holdings in a timely fashion and for taking short positions in an effort to offset certain stocks until they could be sold.

Ross replied by saying that even though his ethics agreement allows him to retain private equity holdings, he will now sell all his holdings and put them in Treasury securities in order “to maintain the public trust.”