Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, bank chairman and movie producer who was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to become Treasury Secretary, has pledged to divest himself of interests in roughly 85 Warner Bros. films, which he obtained through film finance firm RatPac-Dune Entertainment.
In a letter sent Jan. 10 to an assistant general counsel in charge of ethics at the Treasury Department, Mnuchin wrote that he will divest himself of any interest in RatPac-Dune Entertainment within 120 days of his confirmation.
“With regard to these interests, I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter that to my knowledge has a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of the entity until I have divested it, unless I first obtain a written waiver,” Mnuchin wrote in the letter, which was made publicly available online by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
Mnuchin formed RatPac-Dune in 2013 with billionaire James Packer and filmmaker Brett Ratner. The former Goldman Sachs partner began investing in films around the beginning of this decade through an arrangement his Dune Capital had with 20th Century Fox, which was terminated in 2015 according to a financial disclosure form released by the U.S. ethics office. RatPac-Dune has an agreement with Warner Bros., which involves an interest in rights to 52 existing and 23 future Warner Bros. films.
“RatPac-Dune LLC is a passive investor in each film and receives an income stream with respect to each film,” the disclosure said.
Mnuchin has been one of Trump’s most scrutinized Cabinet picks, stemming from his role as chairman of OneWest Bank, which has been criticized for the aggressiveness with which the bank foreclosed on borrowers.