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Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s candidate who will be the head of the Federal Research Office (FBI), has shares valued between $ 1 and $ 5 million in a company that controls Shein, a controversial giant of electronic commerce and fashionable fashion In China, according to Lobbying and Lobbying and Lobbying and Lobbying corporate records from three countries reviewed by Wired. They show that Patel began to consult for Shein A month before The company also retained the services of a lobbying company where Pam Bondi, the newly confirmed Attorney General of Trump’s United States, worked at that time.
In a legally required financial disseminationPatel told the members of the United States Senate, that they are expected to vote on whether to confirm it next week, not to plan to unintentionally participate in Shein if he becomes the FBI leader. He was assigned actions in the fast fashion company, which according to the reports is valued to be worth it $ 50 billionin the form of what are called “restricted stock units” (RSU).
RSU are often delivered to company employees, which cannot generally not charge them until a certain amount of time or other conditions pass. Patel revealed that his Shein Rsus began to guess on February 1 and is expected to be paid quarterly.
Legally, an official like the Chief of the FBI would not need to unintentionally or withdraw until a clear conflict of interest arises, says Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications of the citizens of the Watchdog group for their responsibility and ethics in Washington. “However, the optics of the situation is not excellent,” he says. “Therefore, we would recommend the divestment or challenge of any matter that involves Shein by assuming the position.”
An official who works for Trump’s transition team said Patel has gone “beyond” when answering questions from legislators. “The Senate has evaluated all possible conflicts and concerns,” said Arjun Mody in an email to Wired. Shein did not immediately respond to a comment request.
In his financial dissemination, Patel said he began working as a consultant for an entity in the Cayman islands called Elite Depot Ltd in April 2024, which he described as a “fashion management company.” A cable review of corporate registration presentations, lobbying revelations and other public records of the EE. UU., United Kingdom and Cayman show that Elite Depot functions as a parent company for Shein.
Shein, known for selling low -price clothes made in China, was under intense scrutiny in Washington for his alleged little ethical commercial practices when Patel began consulting for the company. Amid the controversy, Shein was struggling to obtain the approval of financial regulators to become public in New York. In February of that year, then Senator Marco Rubio de Florida, now Trump’s Secretary of State, tax The United States Stock Exchange and Securities Commission to stop Shein’s planned IPO.
In a financial audit that Shein presented to the regulators in the United Kingdom, where he is currently trying to opi after his listed attempts in the United States stagnated, the company said that its “final control party is Elite Depot Limited, a company registered in the Cayman Islands. three different political lobbying companies Working in the name of Shein in Washington describes similar to Elite Depot as a 100 percent property participation in the fast fashion giant.
