Vincent Viola, the billionaire Wall Street trader who is President Trump’s nominee to be secretary of the Army, has been negotiating to sell his airline, a move that would alleviate a potential conflict of interest. But, if the deal goes ahead, he may be buying himself another headache.
Mr. Viola, co-owner of the Florida Panthers hockey team with an estimated net worth of approximately $1.8 billion, has been trying to swap his majority interest in Eastern Air Lines for a smaller stake in Swift Air, a charter company with millions of dollars in hard-to-track government subcontracts, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
While Mr. Viola’s reasons for seeking a sale of Eastern Air Lines are not known, such a transaction would certainly reduce his exposure to the airline industry, which is heavily regulated by the federal government. But in exchange, Mr. Viola, a retired Army major, may find himself in the precarious position of being a government official who benefits from federal contracts.
Mr. Trump has asked an unusual number of extraordinarily wealthy businesspeople to join his administration, and ethics lawyers and government watchdog groups have predicted that their complicated financial lives could create conflicts of interest. Mr. Viola has remained largely under the radar, but his airline negotiations bring an unexpected twist, showing that even when appointees try to sell assets, the transactions can be bedeviled with ethical issues.
