A bank co-founded and chaired by Steven Mnuchin was accused of wrongful foreclosures and racial discrimination before being sold for $3.4 billion, a deal in which Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, earned millions of dollars on.
But the sale of OneWest Bank, which drew opposition from public interest groups, would not have gone through without the support of 14 non-profit groups that stepped up to back it. Those groups, though, received grants from the OneWest Foundation chaired by Mnuchin and, one of the non-profits was specifically asked to write a letter of support according to Politico.
After the sale, seven of the groups received $3.45 million from the foundation.
Mnuchin, who has no government experience but is a banker with deep roots to Wall Street, reportedly received a $10.9 million payout from the merger. Politico says he still owns about $97 million worth of CIT stock. CIT group purchased OneWest Bank.
"This is exactly what appeared to happen with the Trump Foundation," Rosemary Fei, a lawyer with Adler & Colvin in San Francisco who advises nonprofit organizations, told Politico. "It is not an appropriate use of charitable assets to benefit an affiliated business."
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