Vincent Viola Withdraws as Secretary of Army Nominee

President Donald Trump's nominee for Army secretary, businessman Vincent Viola, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the post.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was disappointed but understood and respected Viola's decision, a Pentagon statement said. Mattis will recommend to Trump another candidate soon, the statement said.

A Trump administration official confirmed Friday night that Viola had withdrawn. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

The Military Times reported that Viola said in a statement he was "deeply honored" to be nominated but cited his inability to successfully navigate the confirmation process and Defense Department rules concerning family businesses.

Viola was the founder of several businesses, including the electronic trading firm Virtu Financial. He also owns the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers and is a past chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

A 1977 West Point graduate, Viola trained as an Airborne Ranger infantry officer and served in the 101st Airborne Division. In 2003, he founded and helped fund the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

The full extent of Viola’s financial holdings and ownership stakes in other companies would’ve been detailed in ethics and financial disclosure forms to be filed as the nomination process unfolded. Without them, it’s difficult to know what business arrangements tripped him up. This is the first Trump nominee to withdraw from consideration.

Viola’s net worth is estimated at $2.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He founded Virtu Financial in 2008 and took the electronic market-making firm public in 2015. An earlier attempt at an IPO was shelved in 2014 after Michael Lewis’s “Flash Boys” brought the high-frequency trading firm under attack.

Viola served as chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange from 2001 to 2004, after starting his career on the Nymex trading floor and working his way up through the organization. He’s also the owner of the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers, which updated their jerseys last year with a crest inspired by armed forces insignia in a nod to Florida’s military community and Viola’s Army heritage.

Trump and Viola may have forged a connection last year when the plane used by the Florida Panthers was repurposed to fly Trump’s vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence around the country during the campaign, according to a story in the Miami Herald. Viola has an ownership interest in Eastern Airlines, an air charter company based in Miami, that is linked to the old airline of that same name that went broke in 1991, the newspaper reported.

As part of his need to divest of assets that could pose conflict of interest issues, Viola was trying to exchange his stake in Eastern Airlines for a smaller stake in Swift Air, the New York Times reported earlier this week. Swift Air is a charter company with millions of dollars in government subcontracts, the newspaper said, citing people with knowledge of the negotiations who it didn’t name.