WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's nominee to head the FBI earned $9.2 million last year as a partner in an international law firm, where he worked for clients ranging from Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) Group and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Disclosure forms produced for the Office of Government Ethics show Christopher Wray is also expected to receive millions more in payments when he leaves the King & Spalding law firm on his confirmation as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The forms and a letter from Assistant Attorney General Lee Lofthus, a designated ethics official for the Justice Department, were made public ahead of Wray's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Wray would succeed James Comey, whom Trump fired in May.
Lofthus said in his letter that Wray would not receive a bonus, severance or contingency fees on leaving his firm but would receive a refund of his money in the firm's capital account and a final partnership share distribution, unless he decided to forfeit it.
To satisfy ethics concerns, Wray will not participate for one year in FBI matters that involve companies or people represented by his former law firm, Lofthus said in his letter. He also will not participate in matters involving his former clients for a year, unless he obtains a prior authorization.
Wray's financial disclosure forms show he provided legal services to a number of large international corporations, including Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Huntington Ingalls Industries, Georgia-Pacific and SunTrust Banks (NYSE:STI)
He also provided legal services to Christie during the "Bridgegate" scandal in which two of the Republican governor's former associates were convicted of plotting to close down access lanes at the George Washington Bridge for nearly a week in 2013 in an act of political retribution.
If he is confirmed, Wray will have 90 days to dispose of millions of dollars worth of stock he owns in firms ranging from Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and American Airlines to Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), Lofthus said.
Wray served at the U.S. Justice Department from 2003 to 2005
under Republican President George W. Bush as an assistant attorney general in charge of its criminal division and oversaw the department's Enron task force.