Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who promised this summer to sell off investments that posed numerous conflicts of interest with his new Trump cabinet role, ended up losing tens of millions of dollars when he finally divested, a Forbes investigation reveals. Among the bigger losses, according to documents cited in the report, the billionaire investor was forced to part with a $25 million shipping fund interest named Starboard WLR Associates LP for less than $10 million in August. Ross has faced a series of exposés that have shown he maintained business relationships with the Chinese government and associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin and maintained control of several lucrative ventures after he took office. After reports emerged that he had submitted false statements to federal ethics officials and was accused of jeopardizing the public trust, Ross announced he would clean house. “To maintain the public trust, I have directed that all of my equity holdings be sold and the proceeds placed in U.S. Treasury securities,” the Trump official said in a July 12 statement.