Tillerson confirmation becomes proxy battle

摘要

Former ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson will cut all financial ties to the company if he becomes US secretary of state, to allay concerns about potential conflicts of interest. But his confirmation process in the Senate is turning into a bipartisan proxy attack on president-elect Donald Trump’s Russia policy. Tillerson agrees, on confirmation by the Senate, to forgo any unpaid bonuses and convert his claim to 2.02mn restricted ExxonMobil shares — valued at $183mn at present stock prices — that would have vested in the next decade into a blind trust invested in US Treasury securities and non-ExxonMobil assets. And he will forfeit the trust holdings altogether if he takes another job in the oil and natural gas industry after leaving government service.