Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross lied about being a billionaire

Mary Turner | Reuters

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, speaks at the Conferederation of British Industry’s annual conference in London, Britain, November 6, 2017.

Turns out Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross may have greatly exaggerated his wealth, according to a report from Forbes.

Just a year ago, Forbes listed Ross’ net worth at $2.9 billion and included him in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans by net worth. The new report says Ross had just under $700 million in assets. It cited financial-disclosure forms filed by Ross after being nominated for his Commerce secretary.

After Forbes learned about this, the magazine said, it wanted to remove Ross from the Forbes 400. Ross protested, according to the report, telling the magazine it wasn’t taking into account some trusts created for his family, which add “more than $2 billion” to his net worth and which he did not have to disclose in federal filings.

But the magazine said that after “one month of digging,” it is confident that the more than $2 billion never existed.

“It seems clear that Ross lied to us, the latest in an apparent sequence of fibs, exaggerations, omissions, fabrications and whoppers that have been going on with Forbes since 2004,” Forbes’ report said.

Ross did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The Commerce Department told Forbes that Ross “has filed all required disclosures in accordance with the law and in consultation with both legal counsel and ethics officials at the Department of Commerce and Office of Government Ethics. As we have said before, any misunderstanding from your previous conversation with Secretary Ross is unfortunate.”

Click here to read Forbes full report.