Donald Trump wants billionaire investor as commerce secretary

Donald Trump

Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump wants to name billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary.

Ross, 78, is famed for restructuring failed companies, and he is also a trusted economic adviser to Team Trump.

New York investor Carl Icahn appeared to confirm the news on Tuesday that his fat cat pal is the leading candidate for the job, New York Post reported.

"Spoke to @realDonaldTrump. Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross are being considered for Treasury and Commerce. Both would be great choices," Icahn tweeted.

"Both are good friends of mine but, more importantly, they are two of the smartest people I know," he added.

Mnuchin, a veteran Wall Street insider and Goldman Sachs vet, was the finance chair of Trump's campaign.

In August, Ross agreed to reimburse investors $11.8 million and pay a fine of $2.3 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into the company's misappropriation of fees.

Investors in W.L. Ross' fund were wrongly assessed the fees from 2001-2011, the SEC found.

Ross was, according to its fund agreements, supposed to take 50 per cent of the fees it charged its companies and give it to fund investors to offset their fund management fees, but did not do so, the SEC found.

Ross did not admit any liability. It had self-reported the issue to the SEC.