WILBUR Ross owns several important legal shipping companies that carry legal cargoes legally. Hold the front page, as we used to say. 

As someone who has made a living from journalism for more than 30 years, I have nothing but respect for colleagues who can craft attention-grabbing stories out of somewhat flimsy material.

Presenting information already largely in the public domain as a ‘scoop’ or an ‘exclusive’ is just one of the many underhand tactics to which we impoverished scribes must sometimes stoop, simply to put bread and dripping on the table for our emaciated children.

But even by the peculiarly dishonourable standards of my chosen trade, this weekend’s #PanamaPapers coverage about the US commerce secretary’s shipping activities leave me feeling distinctly underwhelmed. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am no admirer of the Trump administration. I am also fully aware that, as both a multi-billionaire and a prominent politician, Mr Ross is a walking, talking readymade target for populist disapprobation. 

For all I know, or even care, hordes of anarchists clad in Guy Fawkes masks may well be plotting a million mask march on whichever of his multiple luxury residences he may be residing in today.

But the point is, Mr Ross has done absolutely nothing wrong. Navigator Holdings operates a fleet of LPG and petrochemical carriers, perhaps the world’s largest. Like all other shipping concerns, it touts for consignments to fill its vessels. So what?

Anyone who cared to know with whom it transacted business could have ascertained as much from a cursory glance at a fixtures list; this is hardly the kind of esoteric secret that can only be gleaned by teams of intrepid journos beavering away on a massive data dump.

It needs to be stressed that, however unglamorous, getting petchems from A to B is an entirely commendable and socially useful thing to do. Presumably it also turns a penny for Mr Ross. But that is why private companies exist. So far, so unshocked.

Nor does the ‘connections to Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law’ angle withstand much interrogation. As popularised by the notion of six degrees of separation, pretty much anybody can somehow be tenuously linked to just about anybody else on the planet. 

For its part, Sibur is one of the many companies that emerged in rather murky circumstances during Russia’s period of ‘shock therapy’ conversion to capitalism in the 1990s. 

But that was almost a generation ago. It is now a major gas and petrochemicals entity, requiring shipping capacity to serve its needs. Step forward, Navigator, in entirely above board fashion, and paying such taxes as are due on its activities.

Some of Sibur’s minor shareholders are Russian nationals reportedly subject to Western sanctions. But is it really being suggested here that all companies should know all the shareholders in all the other companies that make up its client base? On that basis, world commerce would simply grind to a halt.

Besides, to accuse somebody prepared to serve alongside such now sadly departed White House moral titans as Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus and Anthony Scaramucci of choosing his associates poorly is not without a certain irony.

The reality is that through his WL Ross and Co private equity empire, Mr Ross has accumulated interests in so many companies that he probably could not even name a fair number of them.

Now that he is playing in the political big league, he will have no hand in the nitty-gritty of their day-to-day management. That’s what hired managers are for. As the Department of Commerce makes clear, he has recused himself from any involvement with his shipping concerns.

Being the most bleeding heart of all bleeding heart liberals, I do admit that defending a paid-up member of the Davos Man-incarnate global capitalist elite does feel kind of dirty.

I’d much rather be salving my conscience by protesting the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, or trying to persuade people in shipping to take the reality of global warming seriously. That’s how we liberals roll.

But in this instance, justice demands that I make one thing clear; No rules have been violated, no impropriety has occurred. It is difficult to know why the name of Wilbur Ross is in the headlines today.