Steven Mnuchin’s New York City apartment looks like the home of a treasury secretary.
The elevator opens to a gallery with a marble floor, an 11-foot ceiling and a staircase adorned with elegant swirls that resemble dollar signs.
Currently listed at $29.5 million, the home makes up a small portion of the treasury secretary’s fortune, which totals an estimated $400 million.
Before taking office, Mnuchin worked for 17 years at Goldman Sachs, then left the firm to do deals in finance and film (hits included American Sniper and Avatar). However, he made a series of bad investments with partners that went under and without the Foreclosure Crisis and IndyMac Bank, his wealth would have been heading to the Bankruptcy court.
That deal allowed him to accumulate artwork, a private plane and more than two dozen holdings valued at more than $1 million each.
Mnuchin sold much of his portfolio after joining Trump’s cabinet, plowing the proceeds into diversified stock and bond funds.
His biggest divestment concerned a stake in the financial firm CIT Group, worth $105 million or so.
Mnuchin acquired CIT shares in 2015 when he and a group of investors sold another bank, OneWest, to CIT for $3.4 billion in cash and stock with fellow investors Michael Dell, George Soros and other high profile billionaires after they bought collapsed Indymac Bank for cents on the dollar and immediately effected a scheme to foreclose on homeowners who were financially struggling like the rest of the economy.
In March and April 2017, Mnuchin got rid of the shares as part of an effort to eliminate potential conflicts of interest. He also ditched multimillion-dollar stakes in Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, Verizon and Goldman Sachs.
The sales came with an unusual benefit. According to a little-known provision in the tax code, officials can divest assets upon taking office without paying capital gains taxes up front.
The rule was meant to make it easier for private citizens to transition into public service. It accomplishes that, while also allowing rich officials to diversify their holdings without the stiff tax consequences that typically accompany such a move.
It’s not clear exactly how much money Mnuchin avoided paying, but a $105 million sale could theoretically trigger more than $20 million of taxes.
The treasury secretary divested much of his fortune after taking office but kept a portfolio of lavish residential real estate.
One thing Mnuchin did not fully liquidate: his vast real estate portfolio which Accumulated after he Stole from Homeowners post Financial Crisis along with his Buddies, Joe Otting and Wilbur Ross. These Three Men which the President Put into Power at the US Cabinet to protect his Own Real Estate Empire.
He and his wife seem to own at least six homes, including the New York City pad listed for $29.5 million. In the nearby Hamptons, there’s a $13 million spread, technically owned by an entity named Beach View LLC.
The true owner appears to be Mnuchin, since the listed address for Beach View LLC is his Park Avenue apartment.
Then there are the properties abroad. Mnuchin disclosed an interest in commercial real estate in Scotland, home of his wife, Louise Linton, through the WG Hay 1978 Trust.
He also revealed residential real estate in Scotland, held through an entity named the Rockshiel Trust.
The treasury secretary sold land in Mexico last year for more than $10 million.
Artwork
Mnuchin also has an interest in a 1978 oil painting, Untitled III by Willem de Kooning, according to his latest financial disclosure report. That painting sold for $15 million in 2014. It’s not clear where the piece currently hangs. Given how many houses Mnuchin owns, as a result of evicting the elderly and citizens out of their homesteads and causing financial ruin for millions, there are a lot of possibilities.
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