Donald Trump's Secretary of State pick Rex Tillerson also did business with Iran, Syria and Sudan

ExxonMobil apparently made sales to the countries through a European subsidiary

Rex Tillerson (Reuters)

Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State was a top executive of an oil giant who did business with Iran, Syria and Sudan while the countries were under US sanctions.

Rex Tillerson was CEO of ExxonMobil who conducted business with the nations through a European subsidiary. All of the countries faced sanctions from the US for sponsoring terrorism.

The 64-year-old's connections to the countries are likely to surface at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

From 2003 to 2006 ExxonMobil made $53.2 million in sales to Iran, $600,000 in sales to Sudan and $1.1 million in sales to Syria, according to filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seen by American Bridge.

The business was conducted by Infineum, in which ExxonMobil owned a 50 per cent share. The sales were not illegal as they did not involve any US employees and were consistent with legal requirements.

“These are all legal activities complying with the sanctions at the time," Alan Jeffers, media manager at ExxonMobil, told USA Today. "We didn’t feel they were material because of the size of the transactions.”

“They (Infineum) have an independent management that operates the entity. And it’s not a U.S. entity,” Mr Jeffers added.

Mr Tillerson was a senior vice president at ExxonMobil in 2001, president and director in 2004 and became chairman and chief executive 2006.

Senator Bob Menendez said Mr Tillerson’s record and actions as CEO of ExxonMobil were not in keeping for a prospective diplomat.

"Finding loopholes to make lucrative business deals with geo-political adversaries, while showing no clear regard for US national interests, is not a resume builder for a prospective diplomat-in-chief," Mr Menendez said.

"This is one of the many issues I look forward to hearing more about during the upcoming confirmation hearings.”

Mr Tillerson's company also has billions of dollars in oil contracts with Russia that can only go forward if the US lifts its sanctions against the country, The New York Times reported.

While the Texan has ample experience dealing with other nations, he has worked strictly as a businessman, not a diplomat.