Steven Mnuchin: Things You Didn’t Know
Up until recently, chances are you have never even heard the name, Steven Mnuchin. Since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States in November, his name has been popping up in the news quite often. This is because President-elect Trump nominated him as the Secretary of Treasury. If you want to know a man who will soon be a powerful leader of our country, read on.
Steven’s Early Life
Steven was born on December 21, 1962, in New York City to a Jewish family. His mother, Elaine was from New York and his father, Robert, was from Washington, Connecticut. Growing up, his family was very well off. In the Wall Street Journal’s December 1, 2016, edition, he was described as someone would have driven a Porsche in college. After graduating from high school, Steven attended Yale University.
Steven Followed in His Father’s Footsteps
Steven’s father, George was a banker and a partner at Goldman Sachs. At the company, he was in charge of equity trading. This is where George made most of his fortune. Soon after graduating from Yale, Steven also started working at Goldman Sachs, and he remained there for 17 years and it is where he also earned most of his fortune. He left Goldman Sachs in 2002.
Steven’s Entertainment Company
After leaving Goldman Sachs and after a few short stints as the Chief Executive of Sears and for Soros Fund Management, Steven founded RatPac-Dunne Entertainment. The company went on to produce some very highly rated films, such as Avatar and the X-Men film franchise. According to Steven, it was a chance to use a bit of his creative side. He also teamed up with financier James Packer and film producer, Brett Ratner, and they started the company,
Relativity Media. He was the co-chair of the company and the company was responsible for Mad Max:Fury Road and American Sniper, starring Mark Walburgh. He was an executive producer on both films. Fortunately, Steven left the company before it went bankrupt. According to a source, Steven left the company due to a conflict of interest between his responsibilities at OneWest and Relativity.
OneWest
In 2009, Steven along with several others bought the failed housing lender, IndyMac for $1.6 billion. They renamed the company OneWest and Steven was the Chairman of the Board. Unfortunately, OneWest created a variety of problems. According to The New York Times, the company was involved in a variety of lawsuits. Most of them were over foreclosures that were considered questionable. According to reports, OneWest promised to work with borrowers who were seeking loan modifications and then went back on that promise.
This made the borrowers very angry, and in 2011 dozens of protestors showed up on the lawn of his Bel-Air mansion to protest against the lies that the company was telling. According to reports, OneWest settled several of the cases for millions of dollars. OneWest was eventually sold to CIT Group in 2015, which brought on an even bigger set of problems.
Steven Has Had Dealings With Donald Trump in the Past
Being nominated for the Secretary of Treasury by Donald Trump wasn’t the first time that Steven dealt with the President-elect. In 2004, he founded a hedge fund, which he named Dune Capital Management. His firm invested in a few of Donald Trump’s projects. While working on one of the projects, Donald Trump sued Duane Capital Management, and eventually, a settlement was reached. It was with his partners in his hedge fund that IndyMac was purchased.
Steven’s Personal Life
Steven has been married twice. After divorcing his first wife, he married Heather deForest Crosby. The couple had three children together before divorcing in 2014. He is now engaged to actress Louise Linton, who is 19 years younger than him. They are currently living in his $26.5 million home in Bel Air, California. He also owns a house in the Hamptons.
He Was Trump’s Campaign Finance Chairman
During Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Steven worked as his finance chairman. There were quiet rumors back then that Steven was a contender for Secretary of Treasury if Donald Trump was elected. The reason that the rumor was kept so quiet was because his choice completely counters the anti-establishment rhetoric that he talked about so often in his campaign. He even went on to make a campaign commercial stating that his opponent, Hillary Clinton was too cozy with Wall Street. Him nominating Steven for position goes completely against everything that Trump said during his campaign.
Campaign Contributions
While Steven worked with Donald Trump on his campaign in the race for the President of the United States against Hilary Clinton, and even though he is going to be working for Donald Trump when he takes over in the White House, Steven has a long history of making campaign contributions to Democrats. He even made a contribution to Hilary Clinton when she was running for the senate. This obviously didn’t bother Donald Trump too much, since he also contributed to Hillary’s campaign in the past.
Net Worth
Steven’s net worth is estimated at $40 million.
Steven Has No Government Experience
There are several people who worry about Steven taking over as the Secretary of Treasury. This is in part because he no experience in government and he has also had no experience running a large company. He does, however, have a long resume in Wall Street and also a history of moving fast to seize financial opportunities. These are moves that terrify other financial wizards. According to recent reports, the only thing that Steven does have going for him when it comes to taking over as Secretary of Treasury is working for Donald Trump’s campaign, knowing him, and being loyal to him.
Steven has made millions of dollars in the financial world. He has dabbled in just about every area of high finance. The only thing he hasn’t done is held any positions or taken any jobs that would qualify him to be the Secretary of Treasury of the United States. Time will only tell how good of a job he does and whether or not he is truly qualified to hold this position.