Jared Kushner's family criticised for touting cash-for-visas scheme in China

Source: The Guardian


Jared Kushner's family criticised for touting cash-for-visas scheme in China

Tom Phillips in Beijing

Sunday 7 May 2017 06.45 BST First published on Sunday 7 May 2017 06.44 BST


Donald Trump’s administration is facing new questions about conflicts of interest after Jared Kushner’s family staged events in China to woo wealthy investors into luxury developments, with the prospect of receiving US green cards in return. On Saturday, Kushner’s sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, took to the stage at an event at Beijing’s Ritz-Carlton hotel to urge Chinese investors to back One Journal Square, two skyscrapers currently being built in New Jersey. Members of the audience of 100 were reportedly told that if they stumped up at least half a million dollars for the project they could become US residents under a controversial cash-for-residency program that is known in China as the “golden visa”.

CNN reported that Meyer touted Jared Kushner’s position in the White House. “In 2008, my brother Jared Kushner joined the family company as CEO, and recently moved to Washington to join the administration,” she said.

According to the New York Times, which was subsequently ejected from the seminar along with the Washington Post, Meyer told investors: “[This project] means a lot to me and my entire family”.

A slide shown during the pitch identified Trump as a “key decision maker” in the controversial EB-5 immigrant investor program, for which there has been an explosion of Chinese applications in recent years. “Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States,” the event’s brochure claimed, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the story.

Meyer pointed out that her brother had left the family firm in January to join the Trump White House, but the Kushner family’s attempt to woo Chinese investors drew immediate criticism in the US. Washington insiders say Jared Kushner has played a central role in the recent warming of ties between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping and has become a key point of contact for China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/07/jared-kushners-family-criticised-for-touting-cash-for-visas-scheme-in-china