European Parliament Report Accuses Wilbur Ross of Insider Trading

Ross' involvement with the Bank of Ireland began in July 2011, when his hedge fund, WL Ross & Co., joined several institutional investors to purchase a 34.9 percent stake in the struggling financial firm for 1.12 billion euros ($1.6 billion). At the time, the deal "led to much head-scratching," according to the Irish Examiner. That's because Ross and the other investors obtained stock in the company at the low price of 10 euro cents a share just months after the bank received a 3.5 billion euro bailout from the Irish Central Bank and a guarantee of up to 10 billion more. (The bank's shares were trading at about 30 euro cents two months before the sale.) The Irish government's decision "to sell a large chunk of Bank of Ireland at the bottom of the market" so soon after the government's cash infusion had stabilized the institution "was on the face of it baffling," the newspaper reported.

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Ross sold near the top of the market. Since the 2015 admissions that the Bank of Ireland relied on flawed accounting methods, the bank's share prices have dropped significantly. Yet as a board member, Ross would have presumably been privy to the bank's most sensitive financial information, including its bookkeeping practices. This raises the question of what Ross knew when he sold off his shares. Was he aware that the losses the bank was deferring using flawed accounting would inevitably reappear and that he could get out of the company before the true state of its finances became clear?