Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, owns shares between $ 1 million and $ 5 million in a company that controls Shein, a controversial e -commerce and fashion giant established in China is, according to lobby and corporate records from three countries reviewed by Wired. They show that Patel began to consult Shein a month before the company also retained the services of a lobby firm, where Pam Bondi, Trump’s newly confirmed US Attorney General, worked at the time.
In a legally required financial disclosure, Patel told members of the US Senate – who are expected to vote on whether to confirm himself next week – that he does not intend to sell his stake in Shein if he is the leader of the FBI is not. He has awarded shares in the Fast-Fashion Company, which is reportedly valued to be worth $ 50 billion, in the form of what ‘limited stock units’ (RSUs) are called.
RSUs are often given to the employees of the company, which they usually cannot pay out until a certain time has elapsed or complied with other conditions. Patel revealed that his Shein RSUs started settling on February 1 and is expected to be paid out quarterly.
Legally, an official like the Head of the FBI will not have to sell or withdraw until a clear conflict of interest emerges, says Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications with the watchdog groupers for responsibility and ethics in Washington. “However, the optics of the situation are not big,” he says. “So we recommend downloading or withdrawing from any matter involving Shein in office.”
An official who worked for Trump’s transition team said that Patel went “on top” to answer questions from lawmakers. “The Senate has evaluated all potential conflicts and concerns,” Arjun Mody told Wired in ‘Ne post. Shein did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In his financial announcement, Patel said in April 2024 he was a consultant for an entity in the Cayman Islands called Elite Depot Ltd. began to work, which he described as a ‘fashion management company’. A wired overview of Corporate Registration Registration, Lobby Disclosures and other public records of the US, the United Kingdom and the Cayman Islands show that Elite Depot functions as a parent company for Shein.
Shein, known for selling low-prize clothing made in China, is in Washington under intense investigation into his alleged unethical business practices when Patel began consulting for the company. In the midst of controversy, Shein is struggling to obtain approval from financial regulators in New York. In February that year, the then Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, now Trump’s foreign minister, requested the US Securities and Exchange Commission to stop Shein’s planned bursary trading.
In a financial audit presented to Shein to the regulators in the UK – where he is currently trying to see after his efforts to a US listing have come to a standstill – the company said that its “ultimate controlling party” is elite Depot Limited, a company registered on Cayman Islands. ‘Public files presented to the congress by three different political lobster firms, who work on behalf of Shein in Washington, describe Elite Depot similarly to a 100 percent ownership in the fast fashion giant.