Banana Republic

Chasing After the Kushners in China
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

Jared Kushner’s sister Nicole Meyer (third from left) urged wealthy Chinese in Shanghai on May 7 to invest in a Kushner Companies luxury apartment complex in New Jersey.

BEIJING — The tip came in the form of an advertisement posted in the elevator of a Beijing apartment building.
“New Jersey Central Tower,” it said above a rendering of a gleaming housing complex. 

“Government supports, star family builds.”
The “star family” referred to relatives of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser.

The ad gave the details of a meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Beijing where investors would learn how they could obtain permanent residence in the United States by investing $500,000 in a project called “Kushner1.”
On Saturday, May 6, I showed up at a ballroom in the Ritz-Carlton, doing my best to blend in with a crowd of Chinese investors.
After about a half-hour, the keynote speaker took the stage: Nicole Meyer, Kushner’s sister and a leader of Kushner Companies, the family real estate business.
I listened attentively, jotting down her opening words: “This project means a lot to me and my entire family.” 

But about a minute into her speech, a public relations executive blocked my view.
“This is a private event,” she said. 

“I have to let you go. We don’t want to make a scene.”
I noted that the meeting had been publicly advertised. (A colleague in the Beijing bureau of The Times, Jonathan Ansfield, had spotted the notice inside the compound where he lives.)

But it was clear that the handlers were going to block me from hearing the rest of Meyer’s remarks. 

I left the ballroom, but my colleague Cao Li, a journalist in the Beijing bureau of The Times, managed to stay inside for a few more minutes.
Outside the ballroom, a team of about half a dozen public relations executives and security officials grew hostile, threatening to take us into a private room. 

They followed us throughout the hotel, trying to discourage investors from speaking out.
As journalists in China, we are accustomed to dealing with harassment. 

But we don’t typically encounter bullying at events where American companies hold court.
After the meeting, we ran after Meyer, asking whether she worried her business activities in China might create ethical issues for her brother. 

She wouldn’t answer but tried to calm down her irritated husband, Joseph Meyer, chairman and publisher of Observer Media, who shouted three times, “Please leave us alone!”
Later that evening, we broke news that Meyer had dropped her brother’s name and his White House role during her sales pitch at the Ritz-Carlton.

In the days that followed, Kushner Companies apologized; U.S. senators called for an end to the investor visa program that the company was using; and the mayor of Jersey City, N.J., where the housing development is expected to be built, said he opposed tax breaks for the company.
By Friday, Kushner Companies seemed to have grown tired of the controversy. 

The company announced that Meyer and other executives would leave China early, withdrawing from the rest of their roadshow.

Banana Republic

Kushner Companies Backs Out of Chinese Investor Events After Furor
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

Nicole Meyer, a sister of the senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, at a promotional event in Shanghai on Sunday. Critics pointed to the roadshow, which sought to solicit $150 million in financing for a Jersey City housing development, as an example of the conflicts of interest in the Trump administration.

BEIJING — The real estate company owned by the family of Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to Trump, said on Friday that its employees would no longer take part in a cross-country roadshow in China this month.
Executives from Kushner Companies, including Nicole Meyer, Kushner’s sister, were expected to appear in the southern cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou and the central city of Wuhan this month, according to ads for the events.
But after an uproar, the company and its Chinese partner said on Friday that Kushner Companies would no longer be present at those events, although it will continue to actively court investors.
The company is seeking $150 million in financing for a New Jersey housing development through a program that gives foreigners who invest at least $500,000 a shot at green cards, which allow permanent residence in the United States. 

The overall sum represents about 15 percent of the total cost of the property project.

But the effort to raise money in China drew widespread criticism, with ethics experts saying it presented a conflict of interest. 

Kushner continues to benefit from a stake in his family’s real estate business and other investments worth as much as $600 million.

On Friday, Risa B. Heller, a spokeswoman for Kushner Companies, said its employees would no longer participate in the roadshow after taking part in meetings in Beijing and Shanghai last weekend.
“No one from Kushner Companies will be in China this weekend,” she said in a statement, which was earlier reported by The Washington Post.
The Chinese partner of Kushner Companies, an immigration agency named Qiaowai, said on Friday that the meetings this month would go forward, but that no one from Kushner Companies would attend. 

Qiaowai had marketed the Kushner family’s visit as a five-city tour over two weeks, ending in Wuhan. 

The Chinese firm will still give presentations on the New Jersey project, field questions on the investor visa program and solicit investments.
Meyer added a star turn to efforts by Kushner Companies to raise money in China. 

Kushner is married to Trump’s elder daughter, Ivanka. 

Since Trump took office in January, fascination with his family has grown in China, especially as Kushner has become a power broker in relations between Washington and Beijing.
Speaking at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Beijing on Saturday, Meyer said the New Jersey project, called One Journal Square, “means a lot to me and my entire family.” 

She said Kushner, who resigned as chief executive of the company in January, was now serving in the White House.
Meyer’s remarks drew intense backlash in the United States, with critics seizing on the roadshow as a stark example of the conflicts of interest in Trump’s White House.
The company later apologized, saying Meyer did not intend to use her brother’s name to lure investors. 

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said Kushner was in compliance with ethics rules and had “nothing to do” with the company’s work in China.
Adding to the fallout, the mayor of Jersey City, N.J., where One Journal Square is set to be built, said on Sunday that he opposed the Kushner family’s request for hefty tax breaks for the project.
The roadshow also raised questions about the investor visa program known as EB-5, which has been plagued by fraud and abuse scandals and is likely to be overhauled this year.
Even in China, where business and politics often mix, there was a hint of indignation. 

State-run news media published reports asking whether the company was benefiting from unfair competition.
“Caution urged on Kushner project,” read a headline in the Global Times newspaper.
But Hao Junbo, a lawyer in Beijing, said Meyer’s emphasis on family connections would probably prove to be a winning message in China.
“Chinese people have a tradition of worshiping powerful officials,” he said. 

“It’s an innate attraction to Chinese investors. They will automatically label the program as one with official backing after they hear the name of Trump’s son-in-law.”

Chinese Connection

America’s Princeling: Why China Loves Jared Kushner
The Kushner family real-estate empire, including a Trump-branded tower, was built with money from rich Chinese buying ‘investment’ visas to the United States.

By Sarah Rogers

HONG KONG—Chinese consumers are a finicky bunch. 

Plenty of American businesses have attempted to break into China, but a mixture of cross-cultural flops, unpredictable and rapid changes in tastes, and tight government regulation has brought down the likes of Home Depot and Best Buy, and thwarted the global domination of tech giants like Facebook and Google.
But when Nicole Meyer, who is a sister of Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, played up her relationship with her brother—a flagrant wink-wink-nudge-nudge using the the cachet of the White House—she was tapping into China’s strange Trump love, and something more.
The connections that Meyer was evoking in front of 100 potential investors and clients in Beijing’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel were obvious to the well-heeled men and women there. 

She is the sister of an American princeling, the sort of position that is bestowed on a limited few based on their family connections rather than actual achievements—and should they hand over some money to the Kushner family, successful entry to the U.S. would be guaranteed.
The whole Meyer/Kushner pitch aligns with what the Chinese know about their own ruling party’s “royalty,” where the princelings (and princesslings) have been opting for jobs in the private sector, leveraging family connections as part of the political elite.
Just last year, JP Morgan Chase was fined $264 million by U.S. regulators for hiring Chinese princelings, a move that was meant to bolster the bank’s business in the Asia-Pacific region, but was also a violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Meyer, as you’ll recall, touted the property dubbed One Journal Square in New Jersey as something desirable for wealthy Chinese individuals, stating bluntly that they would be awarded with fast-track immigration processing as long as they “invested” $500,000 in the United States.
The visa program, called EB-5, is an attractive channel for Chinese citizens who want to launder cash outside their homeland. 

There are multiple reasons for choosing to do this—some are looking for ways to bypass the strict banking controls that are in place in China; others want to live in a place where dirty air, dodgy food, talk of war on their doorstep, dubious “confessions,” and spy-related paranoia are no longer part of the everyday experience.
Some others, a rare few, are merely after better pre-collegiate education options for their children, going to the lengths of uprooting the entire family to get to the USA.
The Kushner real-estate empire is making a play to profit from those insecurities, in turn exploiting the EB-5 investor visa program.
This particular immigration procedure is, bluntly, a means for rich folks to acquire American residency. 

While other means of settling in the U.S. might involve a mountain of paperwork, the only kind of paper required under EB-5, to all intents and purposes, is the greenback.
All this is well known to Trump, who re-upped the EB-5 program a few days ago. 

Indeed, as Bloomberg reported last year, when Kushner Companies (then-CEO: Jared Kushner) were building Trump Bay Street in New Jersey, the firm they hired to attract investors circulated a video touting the EB-5 benefits to be had by buying there.
According to State Department statistics (PDF), 7,516 mainland-born Chinese were allocated EB-5 visas last year—the lion’s share. 

The second-most numerous national group were Vietnam-born persons: They acquired 334 visas under the same program. 

Here are a few more numbers: In 2005, the program granted only 350 visas in total; in 2007, 700 visas were issued; in 2014, EB-5 reached its quota of 10,000 for the first time ever. 

The numbers speak for themselves: The program is now skewed heavily to benefit Chinese investors.
For a time, Donald J. Trump was the xenophobe’s candidate of choice, as cries of “Build that wall!” reverberated at rallies and claims that the man “beat China all the time” fueled news cycles. 

But Trump has turned the tables.
With Jared Kushner’s name showing up in Beijing during a shameless sales pitch, drawing a direct line between his name and a problematic visa program that has been riddled with fraud, even bringing potentially corrupt money into America, the first family of America is now stained with another shade of embarrassment.
That Jared Kushner was officially absorbed into the Trump administration as a senior adviser—and Middle East peace broker, shadow diplomat, and the person to reinvent government, among other labors—only makes the Kushner family’s wanton cash-grab in China appear even more unprincipled.
No doubt the Kushner family knew before their sales pitch in Beijing that there would be fallout—in the West—if only in the form of a tarnished brand image. 

But a bit of bad press at home is merely the cost of doing business, one that carries negligible impact in hard-currency revenue.
On Sunday, Kushner Companies was quick to issue a statement to The Washington Post saying that it “apologizes if that mention of [Meyer’s] brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors. That was not Meyer’s intention.” 

The firm then went on to emphasize that the real-estate project would provide $180 million in tax revenue in the next 30 years.
Right now, when there are major seismic waves hitting Washington, D.C. 

With the Russia probe only in its inception, and the termination of FBI Director James Comey leaving many wondering what will come next, one must ask: When will the Trump and Kushner families’ ties with China be examined in detail?
One might recall that on the day Trump met with Xi Jinping at Mar-al-Mago, Ivanka Trump secured China trademarks for her clothing, jewelry, and accessories brand.
So far, no one in the Trump-Kushner circuit has been held accountable. 

But it could hardly be more obvious that the family of a presidential candidate who failed to win a majority vote in America is profiting massively from their position.
The people of the United States might someday focus on this, and might someday care. 

But the Chinese? 

They know about princelings and princesslings, and working with them is just what one might call the art of the deal.

Banana Republic

Kushner Kin’s China Sales Pitch ‘Corruption, Pure and Simple’: Expert
by TRACY CONNOR

A former White House ethics adviser says that a sales pitch by Jared Kushner's sister to potential Chinese investors that was centered on a controversial visa program came "very, very close to solicitation of a bribe."
"This is corruption, pure and simple," said Richard Painter, who was an attorney for President George W. Bush and is now a University of Minnesota law professor.
The latest conflict-of-interest uproar to roil Donald Trump's administration arose this weekend as the Kushner Companies invited wealthy foreigners to sink cash into a New Jersey real estate project via the EB-5 program.
Kushner Company Apologizes Over Pitch to Chinese Investors

Addressing the crowds in Beijing and Shanghai at an event hosted by a Chinese immigration firm was Nicole Meyer, sister of Kushner, who is one of Trump's most trusted confidants and his son-in-law.
She name-checked Kushner, according to reporters from the Washington Post and the New York Times who attended. 

Trump's photo also was included in a slideshow that described him as a key decision-maker on the fate of the EB-5 program, but Kushner Companies said that was the work of the Chinese organizer.
The so-called "golden visa" program gives foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in U.S. development projects a faster track to pursue green cards for themselves and their families.

Nicole Meyer poses at a promotional event in Shanghai on Sunday.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday that Kushner, who has divested from his family firm, had "nothing to do" with the investor recruitment, and Meyer said through a spokesperson that she was sorry if anyone misinterpreted her mention of her brother.
But Painter and other ethics watchdogs said the episode was appalling and another example of the blurred lines between the Trump administration's business interests and public policy.
Even if Kushner knew nothing about the events, the company "had no right to use his name in this way or to use the president's image to try and raise money for their own family business," Painter said.
He said to avoid even the appearance of a conflict, the Kushner Companies and Trump's businesses should be removed from the EB-5 program, which was extended last week under a bill signed by the president.
At his daily briefing, Spicer said the EB-5 visa program, along with all visa programs, is under review by the White House.
Asked about the presentations in China, Spicer suggested there was no conflict of interest on Kushner's part.
"Jared has done everything to comply with the ethics rules ... and that had nothing to do with him per se," Spicer said at Monday's press briefing.
"He wasn't involved."
Kushner's personal attorney, Blake Roberts of the WilmerHale law firm, said in a statement that Kushner has "no involvement" in the operation of the Kushner Companies.
Kushner has also "divested his interests in the One Journal Square project by selling them to a family trust that he, his wife, and his children are not beneficiaries of, a mechanism suggested by the Office of Government Ethics," Roberts said.
"As previously stated, he will recuse from particular matters concerning the EB-5 visa program."

Kushner family impropriety

A spokesperson for the Kushner Companies said in a statement that Meyer mentioned Kushner at the China events "to make clear that her brother had stepped away from the company in January and has nothing to do with this project."
"Kushner Companies apologizes if that mention of her brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors. That was not Ms. Meyer's intention," the statement said.
But some event attendees told the newspapers that the company's connection to the White House was a definite bonus as they decided whether to put their money into the project.
"The Trump relationship is an extra point for me," Bi Ting told the Times after a presentation in Shanghai on Sunday.

Banana Republic

The Kushners Add to Trump’s Growing Conflicts of Interest

• The sister of Trump's top adviser just pitched her White House connections to Chinese investors.
• Trump and his family see the Oval Office more as a personal moneymaking venture than an outlet for their deep-seated devotion to public service

By Timothy L. O'Brien

Banana republic's family ties. 

On Saturday, Jared Kushner’s sister was in the ballroom of a Beijing hotel busily promoting her family’s U.S. real estate projects to Chinese investors. 

She did so with aplomb: A photograph of Trump adorned a large screen at the front of the room, noting that the president is a “key decision maker” on a federal program the Kushners were taking advantage of to court foreign investors.
Javier C. Hernandez, a New York Times reporter, helpfully posted a photo of the entire set-up on his Twitter feed over the weekend:

The same photo was in a story Hernandez, along with Cao Li and Jesse Drucker, wrote for the Times over the weekend about the Kushner road show. 

Organizers of the Beijing event kicked out Hernandez and Li after they became uncomfortable with the reporters’ presence; the same fate befell Washington Post reporters covering the fundraiser.
Kushner has emerged as a key White House liaison to China, and his sister, Nicole Meyer, invoked her brother’s connection to her family’s business -- and his White House role -- during her presentation in Beijing.
The Kushners are trying to raise money through a controversial federal program known as EB-5, which grants foreigners a visa and possible U.S. citizenship if they invest at least $500,000 in American enterprises. 

The irony here is that Trump not only inveighed against China as an evil empire while on the campaign trail, he also made anti-immigration a central part of his platform and EB-5 was hatched in 1990 as a way to encourage immigration, investment and job growth in the U.S.
Meyer moved on to Shanghai on Sunday, where “burly security guards” at the Four Seasons Hotel reportedly screened attendees at another fundraiser and kept reporters safely outside in a lobby.
Guards can keep reporters at bay from time to time, but the Kushners -- and the entire Trump clan -- have done a poor job masking the raw financial conflicts of interest that have shadowed the White House and the two families’ business dealings. 

Meyer’s fundraising is only the latest reminder that neither family appears to be very concerned about the propriety of openly embroidering financial wheeling and dealing with nods to the significant policymaking power they also wield in Washington.
It may be tedious at this point, but here’s a short list of some other projects that have raised concerns that Trump and his family see the Oval Office more as a personal moneymaking venture than an outlet for their deep-seated devotion to public service:
Mar-a-Lago, where the president has spent most of his weekends since being sworn in, doubled its membership fee after Trump was elected. 

Trump has used the property to fete foreign dignitaries and used the same taxpayer-supported visits to tour other local Trump golf courses, generating gobs of free advertising for his business.
The Trump family continues to own a hotel in Washington that sits atop federally-owned land, allowing the Trumps to lease space from the same government that they run. 

The hotel has also become a sought-after destination for diplomats, lobbyists and others who transact with the federal government.
Trump has yet to release his tax returns, and hasn’t sufficiently distanced himself from the golf course development and licensing business he left behind at the Trump Organization. 

His two eldest sons and the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer oversee the business and a trust sheltering the president’s holdings, but the structure of the trust gives the president a window onto the company’s finances and leaves him with ample control over the trustees’ decisions.
Jared Kushner, the most powerful person in the White House after the president, has an equally tepid trust sheltering his holdings in his family’s business, and his mother is the trustee. 

Kushner has sold some of his holdings, but there is still insufficient transparency into all of his business dealings.
Kushner has also drawn attention for his efforts last year to raise funds for a financially-troubled skyscraper his family owns in Manhattan, 666 Fifth Avenue. 

The building is saddled with stifling debt and sub-par occupancy rates. 

Kushner attempted to get a major Chinese insurer, Anbang, to bail him out the building but that deal apparently collapsed after Bloomberg reporters wrote about it. 

Kushner also met with a major Russian bank during the same time frame but it’s unclear what that discussion concerned.
On a much smaller, but telling, scale, Ivanka Trump, who recently formalized her White House role as presidential advisor, has been heavily peddling her new book on her widely-followed Twitter feed after deciding not to go on a publicity tour because she thought that was a financial conflict. 

Her Twitter feed includes frequent updates on her policy roles at the White House, alongside warm family moments. (The State Department recently removed its own tweet hawking Ivanka’s book, demonstrating that the agency hadn’t learned from last month’s backlash over its website’s marketing campaign for Mar-a-Lago.)
Ivanka has come under scrutiny for how she operates and markets her clothing and accessories business -- and how aggressively the White House has supported her efforts.
Now we can add this past weekend’s fundraising tour in China to this list.
China has been an attractive business destination for the Trumps and Kushners, and the Chinese in February approved a series of lucrative trademarks for the Trump Organization. 

Trump’s company had spent a decade trying to secure the trademarks; a wave of approvals followed his election victory.
Most business deals can be enhanced and accelerated when the White House’s residents and family members want them to be. 

Until Congress, currently controlled by the president’s party, or the courts, which halted one of his key immigration initiatives, decide to slow things down, the rest of us will have to hope that the Trumps and Kushners recognize that they have something to lose by being craven.