Anti-Beijing Senator Pete Ricketts Is Still Collecting Money From China Deal

Senator Pete Ricketts—known in his old post as Nebraska governor for his tirades against Marxism and Beijing—has continued to rake in cash off the 2021 sale of an Ethiopian cement plant to a Chinese state-backed firm, his new financial disclosures show.

The new filings by the son of billionaire Cubs owner Joe Ricketts reveal that he had received payouts in the amount of $2,501 to $5,000 last year from his holdings in the National Cement Share Company. The submissions note these are mere “holdbacks” from the 2021 sale of the stake in the complex to West China Cement held by a private equity firm in which Ricketts served as limited partner—a $23.4 million transaction which The Daily Beast reported on last year.

The recently appointed Republican senator’s office told The Daily Beast he would get a further payment of between $1,001 and $15,000 at an as-yet unknown date in the future. His team further asserted he had no decision-making role in the sale. Ricketts’ press staff in the governor’s office had previously failed to return calls and emails from The Daily Beast regarding the deal.

Read more at The Daily Beast.