UPDATED, Wednesday, November 30th, 1:00 p.m.: It’s official: Hollywood financier Steven Mnuchin has been tapped as Treasury Secretary by President-elect Donald Trump.
The Goldman Sachs exec-turned-movie producer was the national finance chairman for Trump’s campaign. Mnuchin confirmed his position in the cabinet on Wednesday, according to the BBC.
After two decades on Wall Street — he spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs before starting his own hedge fund, Dune Capital Management, in 2002 — Mnuchin moved out West and bankrolled several Hollywood blockbusters, including the “X-Men” film franchise, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and “Avatar.” Meanwhile, he founded OneWest Bank and served as its chief executive before it sold to CIT Group for $3.4 billion, according to the L.A. Business Journal.
The Bel Air resident was also co-chairman of content production and distribution firm Relativity Media before it went bankrupt in 2015.
During his tenure at OneWest, the bank was accused of improperly administering foreclosures and redlining. Earlier this month, two housing advocacy groups urged the Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate whether OneWest violated federal discrimination laws, alleging that the bank excluded minority homeowners in its mortgage lending business.
Mnuchin is also a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Relativity investor RKA Film Financing, which alleges that some of its money was improperly used to pay off a OneWest Bank loan. [LABJ] [BBC] — Cathaleen Chen