Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s nominee for the FBI director, has been in control of his business connections, including holding stock in a group that owns Shein, the fast -fashioned Chinese seller accused of using forced work .
Patel stated in a form of financial discovery that he held stock worth $ 1 million-$ 5MM in Elite Depot, a group of Kayman Islands that, according to the UK business data, owns Shein. The point was the greatest asset in Patel’s discovery.
Human rights groups and US lawmakers, including Republican Marco Rubio, a former Senator in Florida who is now Trump’s Secretary of State, have accused Shein of using forced labor in his operations in China. Shein has previously told Times that there is a “zero tolerance policy” about forced labor.
Patel, who briefly served as Deputy Director of the Task of National Intelligence in the Trump first administration, no longer works for Elite Depot. But in his form of discovery, he said he would keep his limited stock. A first installment of the stock was given on February 1, two days after his Senate Confirmation session.
“The FBI entrance director worked for 8 months as a fashion consultant at a Cayman Holding shady company linked to a Chinese Communist Party’s slave manufacturer and it receives up to $ 5 million in tariffs.. WTF” Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, wrote on the X social media platform on Friday.
Patel is one of Trump’s most controversial candidates. Seen as a loyal to Trump, he has defended the theories of the right -wing plot of crying and threatening the punishment against the opponents of the President’s Maga movement in government and the media.
He has pledged to close the FBI headquarters in Washington “on the first day and reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state’, which he has pledged to root by US law enforcement agencies.
Patel is also a member of the Trump Media & Technology Group board, who runs the social platform of the President’s truth.
While working for Elite Depot, Patel criticized TEMU, a rival for Shein, in public the parts published in the US media. In an article in the Washington Times, Patel claimed that TEMU was a “much bigger threat” to SH.BA than Tiktok, the popular short -shaped video app owned by Chinese company bytedance.
Rush Doshi, a former China official at the Biden National Security Council, wrote in X that Patel’s links with Shein were “really shocking”, especially in the midst of the FBI would reduce its concentration in influence operations of the Chinese government in the SH.BA
Asked about the criticism of Doshi, the Pateli spokesman highlighted a comment at the candidate’s confirmation session in which he said that national security advantages will “include CCP (Chinese Communist Party) spying that is going rampant five years through our country. ”
The spokesman also rejected the criticisms coming from the Biden administration, saying “let a CCP balloon fly across America.” “This let CCP buy American agricultural land. This le ccp fentanil kills the youth of America. Give me a break,” the spokesman added.
The Senate Judicial Committee on Thursday postponed a vote if it would send Patel’s nomination to the full Senate for Confirmation, after objections from the Democrats.
A Patel spokesman said he had “gone up and on”, including “countless meetings with senators, discovering and reporting all the sources of income” and testifying for six hours before the panel of the judiciary.
“The Senate has praised all the potential conflicts and concerns,” the spokesman said, adding that Patel was looking forward to a Committee’s vote on Thursday and to be quickly confirmed by the Senate.
If confirmed, Patel will follow Christopher Wray, who was a vocal critic of Beijing, whom he accused of carrying out extensive espionage operations. China has repeatedly denied engaging in spying against the US.
Wray, who was appointed by Trump in 2017 and decided to serve for a decade, withdrew the president’s inauguration last month.
Shein has pledged funds in a lobbying campaign in Western capitals, including Washington and London, as she has sought to fight again against a political and regulatory response to his environmental data and supply chain practices.
The fashion group is seeking to rank in London in the coming weeks after being opposed by US regulators. Rubio last year asked the UK to investigate if Shein had used forced labor, noting its failure to meet the US ranking requirements “due to concerns about its unethical and irresponsible business practices.”
On Friday, Trump changed an executive order to reset an exemption from expanded customs duties and controls for shipments below $ 800 in value when entering the US repetition will help Shein.
Shein is challenged by TEMU, a copy platform that sends low -cost goods from China directly to US consumers. The groups are locked in a bitter fight against suppliers in China, as well as the legal battle at the US
In his financial discovery, Patel also said he had received income from the Epok Times, an anti-CCP publication associated with Falun Gong, a dissident group.
Additional reporting from Ryan McMmorrow to Beijing
