Mnuchin foundation donated to groups that vouched for his bank

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Mnuchin foundation donated to groups that vouched for his bank

Trump’s Treasury pick earned millions of dollars from the sale of a bank accused of wrongful foreclosures.

By ISAAC ARNSDORF and KENNETH P. VOGEL 11/30/16 05:12 PM EST Updated 11/30/16 10:36 PM EST

Donald Trump’s choice for treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, earned tens of millions of dollars from a 2015 bank sale that got a boost from an array of nonprofit groups that had one thing in common — they had received tens of thousands of dollars each from the bank’s foundation, which was run by Mnuchin.

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But a parade of community-based nonprofits stepped forward to testify to the federal regulators considering the merger about the good corporate citizenship of OneWest. All of the groups — ranging from a pair of local Boys &Girls Clubs to a pair of Junior Achievement clubs — were beneficiaries of grants from the bank’s charitable arm, the OneWest Foundation, which Mnuchin chaired, according to a POLITICO review of filings with the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve.

In all, 14 groups that sent letters to the Fed in support of the merger received a combined total of $2.5 million from the OneWest Foundation in the four years leading up to the merger. In their letters, the groups lauded OneWest’s support for community groups. In seven of the letters, the groups acknowledged the dollar amounts they received from Mnuchin’s charity arm; in the other seven, they referenced only having enjoyed the support of the bank....

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“This is exactly what appeared to happen with the Trump Foundation,” said Rosemary Fei, a lawyer with Adler & Colvin in San Francisco who advises nonprofit organizations. “It is not an appropriate use of charitable assets to benefit an affiliated business.”...

Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/mnunchin-treasury-foundation-trump-232016