Watch Replay: Treasury Secretary Pick Steven Mnuchin Defends Use Of Cayman Islands Fund

Tim Mnuchin, a former banker at Goldman Sachs and Donald Trump's pick to serve as treasury secretary, testified before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday.

Just hours before the hearing began, news broke that Mnuchin had failed to disclose around 100 million dollars of assets to the Senate Finance Committee.

“In his revised questionnaire, Mr. Mnuchin disclosed several additional financial assets, including $95 million worth of real estate — a co-op in New York City, a residence in Southampton, New York, a residence in Los Angeles, California, and $15 million in real estate holdings in Mexico,” read a memo from Democrats in the committee released on Thursday, according to the New York Times. “Mr. Mnuchin has claimed these omissions were due to a misunderstanding of the questionnaire.”

The memo also says that Mnuchin didn't disclose his relationship to Dune Capital International, an offshore tax haven. Mnuchin is the director of the fund, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

When Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, asked the nominee about the Cayman Island fund, he responded, "I did not use a Cayman Islands entity in any way to avoid taxes for myself."

Which raised the question: Was he helping other people avoid paying taxes?

Mnuchin did not answer that question directly. Watch the exchange below:

In a statement released later in the day, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, "Never before has the Senate considered such an ethically challenged slate of nominees for key cabinet positions. Mr. Mnuchin's failure to disclose his Cayman Island holdings just reeks of the swamp that the President-elect promised to drain on the campaign trail."

Mnuchin wrote off the discrepancies to the difficulty of filling out the forms.

“As you all can appreciate, filling out these government forms is quite complicated,” he said, noting that the paperwork was "quite a job.” He continued: "Any oversight was unintentional.”

The administration has already criticism for the choice, given Trump's campaign attacks on Hillary Clinton for her closeness to Goldman Sachs. Mnuchin also has little public record of policy views, and no prior government experience.

He's also faced criticism for his role as an investor in OneWest Bank, which opponents say aggressively foreclosed on homeowners during the financial crisis.

“Since I was first nominated to serve as Treasury secretary, I have been maligned as taking advantage of others’ hardships in order to earn a buck,” Mnunchin said in prepared remarks. “Nothing could be further from the truth."

Watch live below:

Photo credit: Office of the President-Elect