'Buy political influence': Trump pick Kash Patel accused of 'truly shocking' China scandal

Donald Trump's nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, reportedly has made millions of dollars from a company notorious for human trafficking – which he has vowed to target if confirmed.

A new review by Accountable.US of the Trump nominee's financial disclosure revealed that Patel holds between $1 million and $5 million in stock for Elite Depot Ltd., which is the ultimate controlling party of the Chinese fast fashion brand Shein, which has fallen under bipartisan criticism for their business practices, including the use of forced Uyghur labor.

“It’s hard to take known grifter Kash Patel at his word he will fight human trafficking after getting rich consulting for a Chinese fast fashion company notorious for its forced labor," said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US. "Since Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio and Senator [Tom] Cotton (R-AR) have spoken out about Shein’s exploitative business practices, will they also raise red flags about their preferred FBI Director candidate profiting off it?"

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"If they remain silent," Carrk added, "it’d be just the latest case of conservatives in power putting loyalty to President Trump above all else, even their own supposed values.”

The Trump administration considered just this week whether to add Shein to the Department of Homeland Security’s “forced labor” list, and lawmakers asked the SEC in May 2023 to require the company to certify that their products did not use forced Uyghur labor.

Rubio, Cotton and other elected officials, including a coalition of state attorneys general, expressed their concern about Shein's business practices, but Patel says he won't divest in the shares of a Cayman Islands holding company directly tied to the corporation, according to political reporter Roger Sollenberger.

"Patel’s disclosure says that his shares in the company — Elite Depot Ltd — would begin vesting Feb. 1, two days after his Senate confirmation hearing, will continue to vest through November, and that he won't back out," Sollenberger said. "But Patel appears to have lied about or misrepresented the company on his disclosure, claiming under penalty of perjury it was a 'fashion management company.' But it filed as an 'equity holding company' in the Cayman Islands."

A Senate select committee on China issued a report in 2023 alleging that Shein was “dodging import taxes and evading scrutiny on the millions of goods” sold in the U.S., which congressional investigators said provided a "loophole" that gave it an unfair advantage over American companies, and also connected the brand to the Uyghur genocide, Sollenberger reported.

"Last January, pro-Trump group America First Policy Institute released a report titled 'Genocide Decoupling,' accusing Shein of using 'free slave labor, exploiting Uyghur and other ethnic minorities,'" Sollenberger said. "Patel came aboard the holding company 3 months after that report. In Oct, AFPI announced Patel as a new 'Senior Fellow at the Center for American Security.' (His would-be boss, AG Pam Bondi, led AFPI’s Center for Litigation & Center for Law and Justice.)"

"The revelations about Patel's financial stake in the brand elicited shock.

"These ties between Patel and SHEIN are truly shocking," posted Georgetown assistant professor Rush Doshi, director of the China strategy initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Especially amid reports that DOJ/FBI is going to reduce focus on [People's Republic of China] influence efforts in the US."

"Between the Qatari embassy gig and the mysterious millions of dollars in shares from the Shein shell company, and the quack supplements, the question arises why Kash Patel is famously always complaining about being broke," said journalist Lindsay Beyerstein. "What's he spend it on?"

"Did Kash Patel get $1-5 million in shares in this Cayman Islands shell company connected to Shein because of his expertise in fast fashion?" said Andrew Prokop, senior politics correspondent for Vox. "Or was this an attempt by a Chinese company to buy political influence in Trumpworld? I’m sure Trump’s FBI will get right on it."