Report: SEC Probing Kushner Company Role In Visas-For-Money Program – Chinese who invest in Kushner company real estate deals can get green cards. By Mary Papenfuss (huffingtonpost.com) / Jan 7 2018
As Donald Trump battles to build a wall to keep Mexican immigrants out of America, the Securities and Exchange Commission is probing the real estate company owned by Jared Kushner’s family and its link to a lucrative federal visa program, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The EB-5 visa program provides green cards to immigrants who invest a minimum of $500,000 in certain American businesses. The Associated Press reported last year that wealthy Chines spent $7.7 billion obtaining 40,000 of the “golden visas” in the U.S. in the last decade.
The SEC in May subpoenaed records from Kushner Cos. concerning its links to the program, according to the Journal. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, meanwhile, began then to examine company projects funded through the program. The probes involve twin, 66-story office and housing towers in New Jersey, sources told the Journal.
Emily Wolf, attorney for Kushner Cos., told the newspaper in a statement that the company “did utilize the program,” but that it “fully complied with its rules and regulations and did nothing improper.”
Though Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, stepped down from running the company, he still maintains a stake in projects.
According to his most recent financial filing, he remains an investor in New Jersey’s Trump Bay Street development in Jersey City, which also benefitted from the EB-5 program, the Journal reported. Kushner has reported receiving up to $5 million from the Jersey project that’s the target of the SEC probe, according to the newspaper.
As part of a marketing campaign targeting Beijing and Shanghai, Kushner’s sister Nicole Meyer urged wealthy Chinese last year to invest in the Kushner New Jersey project in return for a green card. People were told that as many as 300 individuals who invested $500,000 each into the New Jersey project could be eligible for green cards, the Journal reported. Most of the 10,000 EB-5 visas issued each year go to rich Chinese immigrants, according to the newspaper.
During a marketing presentation in China in May, Jared Kushner’s name and White House status were invoked, and a photo of President Trump was used in the pitch. The family later apologized, saying it hadn’t intended to capitalize on Kushner’s role in the White House as part of the presentation.
Here's a slide shown during Kushner Co. event in Beijing identifying @realDonaldTrump as "key decision maker" on EB-5 investor visa program pic.twitter.com/j1M4E7eGtQ
— Javier C. Hernández (@HernandezJavier) May 6, 2017
The program has been attacked for ignoring low income immigrants while essentially selling visas to the well-heeled. Critics also say it’s also a tremendous conflict of interest for Kushner who continues to have personal business interests in his dealings with foreign governments, while his priority is supposed to be the America public.
PB/TK – Yes another bullshit Gov program being manipulated by piece of sh*t people, but there’s no uproar over this because it’s the Wealthy making gains. Sure give me a couple thousand bucks and I can get you into the US; if you’re poor it’s in the back of trailer hoping not to suffocate, but if you’re wealthy just enjoy the complimentary pillow in first class.
