(JTA) — The family real estate business of senior White House adviser Jared Kushner reportedly has continued to make large financial deals with Israeli companies and businesspeople.
Kushner, the Jewish son-in-law of President Donald Trump, resigned as chief executive officer of Kushner Companies in January 2017 before taking up his White House post, but still has a stake in the family business.
In May, shortly before Trump’s visit to Israel, the first diplomatic trip of his presidency, Kushner Companies received a $30 million investment from the Israeli insurer Menora Mivtachim, one of the country’s largest financial institutions, The New York Times reported Monday, citing a Menora executive.
The money from the deal, which was not made public, went into 10 Maryland apartment complexes controlled by Kushner Companies, according to the report.
There is no evidence that Kushner was personally involved in the deal, according to The Times, which cited government ethics filings that he is the beneficiary of a series of trusts that own stakes in Kushner properties and other investments worth as much as $761 million.
Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Kushner Companies, told The Times that the company “does no business with foreign sovereigns or governments, and is not precluded from doing business with any foreign company simply because Jared is working in the government.”
Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement: “Jared Kushner has not been involved in, nor spoken about any Kushner Companies’ activities or project, since shortly before the Inauguration. He has an ethics agreement, reviewed by lawyers, with which he is in full compliance. Connecting any of his well-publicized trips to the Middle East to anything to do with Kushner Companies or its businesses is nonsensical and is a stretch to write a story where none actually exists.”
Other deals that were reported previously include the Kushner Companies teaming up with at least one member of Israel’s wealthy Steinmetz family to buy nearly $200 million of Manhattan apartment buildings and build a luxury rental tower in New Jersey; the company’s purchase of several floors of the former New York Times headquarters building in Manhattan from Israeli businessman Lev Leviev; and at least four loans from Israel’s largest bank, Bank Hapoalim.
