Meet Jared Kushner's undisclosed business partner: An Israeli investor whose uncle is under...

[DonViejo]

Meet Jared Kushner’s undisclosed business partner: An Israeli investor whose uncle is under investigation in the U.S.

President Trump’s son-in-law, a top adviser, had help building a real estate empire from a member of one of Israel’s wealthiest families.

By JESSE DRUCKERAPRIL 26, 2017

It was the summer of 2012, and Jared Kushner was headed downtown.

His family’s real estate firm, the Kushner Companies, would spend about $190 million over the next few months on dozens of apartment buildings in tony Lower Manhattan neighborhoods including the East Village, the West Village and SoHo.

For much of the roughly $50 million in down payments, Mr. Kushner turned to an undisclosed overseas partner. Public records and shell companies shield the investor’s identity. But, it turns out, the money came from a member of Israel’s Steinmetz family, which built a fortune as one of the world’s leading diamond traders.

A Kushner Companies spokeswoman and several Steinmetz representatives say Raz Steinmetz, 53, was behind the deals. His uncle, and the family’s most prominent figure, is the billionaire Beny Steinmetz, who is under scrutiny by law enforcement authorities in four countries. In the United States, federal prosecutors are investigating whether representatives of his firm bribed government officials in Guinea to secure a multibillion dollar mining concession. In Israel, Mr. Steinmetz was detained in December and questioned in a bribery and money laundering investigation. In Switzerland and Guinea, prosecutors have conducted similar inquiries.

The Steinmetz partnership with Mr. Kushner underscores the mystery behind his family’s multibillion-dollar business and its potential for conflicts with his role as perhaps the second-most powerful man in the White House, behind only his father-in-law, President Trump.

Although Mr. Kushner resigned in January from his chief executive role at Kushner Companies, he remains the beneficiary of trusts that own the sprawling real estate business. The firm has taken part in roughly $7 billion in acquisitions over the last decade, many of them backed by foreign partners whose identities he will not reveal. Last month, his company announced that it had ended talks with the Anbang Insurance Group, a Chinese financial firm linked to leading members of the ruling Communist Party. The potential agreement, first disclosed by The New York Times, had raised questions because of its favorable terms for the Kushners.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/us/politics/jared-kushner-beny-steinmetz.html?emc=edit_ta_20170426&nl=top-stories&nlid=57435284&ref=headline

[BlueJac]

1. I am soooooooooo tired of the Trumpian era I can puck!

WTF, where are the investigations? There must be a way of stopping Republican obstruction, file legal papers or something. This country can not stand anymore tearing apart, and illegal action from the WH! I can not believe that nobody saw this kind of shit be possible. It might take guts, which some Dems are short on, but I still have fading hope!

[hedda_foil]

2. Like attracts like.

[nikibatts]

3. And the proposed tax reform bill has HUG benefits for realtors. Impeachment yet?