“I have made inadvertent errors in completing the divestitures required by my ethics agreement,” Ross said in a Thursday statement after receiving a letter from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE).

Ross said that “to maintain the public trust,” he had sold off all his equity holdings and placed the proceeds in U.S. Treasury securities.

The OGE letter from acting Director David Apol criticized Ross for failing to divest stocks by Jan. 15, 2017 — the date indicated on his ethics agreement — therefore, creating the potential for “a serious criminal violation on your part.” The letter also noted that Ross said he had complied with the ethics agreement in November 2017, but that transactions existed a month later.