Kash Patel, the nominee of President Donald Trump as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has shares with a value of $ 1 million to $ 5 million in a company that checks Shein, founded a controversial E -commerce and fashion giant in China, according to Lobby and business records, according to lobby and business records, according to lobby and corporate record from three countries assessed by Wired. They show that Patel a month before the company started consulting for Shein.
In a legally required financial disclosure, Patel told the members of the US Senate – who is expected to vote or he should confirm him next week – that he does not intend to dispose of his interest in Shein if he was the leader of the FBI becomes. He was assigned shares in the fast-fashion company, which is reportedly appreciated to be worth $ 50 billion, in the form of what is called “limited stock units” (RSUs).
RSUs are often given to employees of the company, who they usually cannot cash in until a certain amount of time has elapsed or other conditions have been met. Patel revealed that his Shein RSUs began to wake up on 1 February and are expected to be paid out quarter.
From a legal point of view, a civil servant such as the head of the FBI should not reject or rearrange it until a clear conflict of interest arises, says Jordan Libbowitz, vice -president of communication at the watchdog group burgers for responsibility and ethics in Washington. “However, the optics of the situation is not great,” he says. “So we would recommend rejection or refusal of any issue in which Shein is involved in his participation.”
An official work for the Trump transition team said that Patel went “above and outside” when answering questions from legislators. “The Senate has evaluated all potential conflicts and worries,” Arjun Mody said in an e -mail to Wired. Shein did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In his financial disclosure, Patel said that in April 2024 he started working as a consultant for an entity on the Cayman Islands called Elite Depot Ltd., which he described as a 'fashion management company'. A wealthy assessment of company registration requests, lobbying oppositions and other public archives from the US, the UK and the Cayman Islands shows that Elite depot functions as a parent company for Shein.
Shein, which is known for the sale of cheap clothing made in China, was in an intensive investigation in Washington about his alleged unethical business practices when Patel started consulting for the company. In the midst of the controversy, Shein had difficulty getting approval from financial regulators to become public in New York. In February of that year, the then senator Marco Rubio of Florida, now the State Secretary for Trump, insisted on the US Securities and Exchange Commission to stop the planned IPO of Shein.
In a financial audit that Shein has submitted to supervisors in the UK – where it is currently trying to get stuck to an American list after his attempts – the company said that his “Ultimate control party is Elite Depot Limited, a company registered on The Cayman Islands that have been presented to the congress by three political lobby companies that work in Washington in the same way as an interest of 100 percent owned in the fast -fashion gigant.
