US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been accused by the New York Times of retaining a business relationship with a Russian oligarch under US sanctions and a son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin. <br /><br />The revelations came during a leak of financial documents at the weekend. <br /><br />The ties were disclosed in the so-called “Paradise Papers,” a mass of documents leaked to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and reported Sunday.<br /><br />The millions of documents mostly originate from a Bermuda-based legal services provider that works on offshore investments. <br /><br />Reports on Sunday suggested that Ross did not disclose an interest in a shipping company called Navigator Holdings, a company that transports gas for Russian company SIBUR.<br /><br />The main shareholders of Sibur are Putin’s longtime friend, billionaire Gennady Timchenko and Kirill Shamalov.<br /><br />Ross, however, has since denied that he didn’t disclose these holdings.<br /><br />In an earlier statement on Monday from the Department of Commerce it was further claimed that the holdings are openly listed in a form on the Office of Government Ethics website.<br /><br />The commerce secretary added that there was nothing improper about Navigator Holdings relationship with SIBUR.<br /><br />“A company not under sanction is just like any other company, period.” <br /><br />It was a normal commercial relationship and one that I had nothing to do with the creation of, and do not know the shareholders who were apparently sanctioned at some later point in time.”<br />
