Jared Kushner’s family real estate business received a $30 million investment from Israeli insurer Menora Mivtachim shortly before he traveled to the country as part of President Donald Trump’s state visit to Israel last year, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
The agreement, which was not made public, funneled significant new equity into 10 Maryland apartment complexes controlled by Kushner’s company.
Kushner, who is a White House senior adviser responsible for leading the Middle East peace initiative, sold parts of his business upon entering his father-in-law’s administration, but still has significant stakes in most of the family empire.
Although the deal does not appear to violate federal ethics laws, which require him to recuse himself only from narrow government decisions that would have a “direct and predictable effect” on his business interests, it does illustrate how his family company’s ties to Israel continue to deepen even after he joined the administration.
“I think it’s reasonable for people to ask whether his business interests are somehow affecting his judgment,” said Matthew Sanderson, a lawyer who specializes in government ethics.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Kushner’s company has also received at least four loans from Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest bank which is currently under criminal investigation in the United States.
In addition, Kushner also has had major dealings with some of Israel’s wealthiest investors, some of whom are also under bribery investigations.
Menora executive Ran Markman, who negotiated the loan agreement, told the Times that he did not meet with Kushner during the negotiations and that the deal was “not done because of the so-called connections of Jared Kushner or Donald Trump. The connection to the president was not an issue. It didn’t make us do the deal, it didn’t make us not do the deal.”
A spokeswoman for Kushner Companies told The Times that the firm has worldwide partners, adding it “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.”
One of Kushner’s lawyers added that his client “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.”
But Sanderson, the government ethics lawyer, said, “Their standard seems like some version of ‘It’s a conflict when I think it’s a conflict, and I’ll make that judgment myself.’”