Court rules that Kushner firm must disclose partners names
Last edited Sat Jan 27, 2018, 09:35 AM - Edit history (4)
Source: AP News
NEW YORK (AP) A federal judge ruled Friday that the family company once run by Jared Kushner isnt allowed to keep secret the identity of its business partners in several Maryland properties.
A U.S. district judge in the state rejected the argument that the privacy rights of the Kushner Cos. partners outweigh the public interest in obtaining judicial records in a lawsuit before the court. The decision means the company tied to President Donald Trumps son-in-law might be forced to provide a rare glimpse into how it finances its real estate ventures.
The ruling backed the argument by The Associated Press and other news organizations that the media has a presumptive right to see such court documents and the Kushner Cos. had not raised a compelling government interest needed by law to block access.
U.S. District Court Judge James K. Bredar ruled that Westminster Management, a Kushner Cos. subsidiary, must file an unsealed document with the identity of its partners by Feb. 9.
Read more: https://apnews.com/fd79cf9516d7470aafc894d5c4059b94
This concerns a lawsuit involving 17 apartment complexes in Maryland, which tenant groups have been claiming charged excessive rents. Kushner has owned additional properties in Maryland and elsewhere with hidden partners.
Ironically, the owners got ensnared in their lawyers' legal tactics. The lawyers didn't want to face a Baltimore jury (according to the ProPublica article below), so they argued that the case should be held in Federal rather than state court, on the grounds that some of the defendants were not from Maryland. So now they have been ordered to publicly name the defendants (which may include foreign partners.)
IF THIS CASE IS SUDDENLY SETTLED OUT OF COURT IT WILL PROBABLY BE BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT TO DISCLOSE THE NAMES.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-md-jared-kushner-lawsuit-20180126-story.html
A judge moved the case to the U.S. District Court of Maryland in November after the company, Westminster Management, invoked a rule that allows such a transfer if the defendants are not residents of or companies in Maryland. But Westminster is required to file documentation proving that all investors associated with the company reside outside the state.
The company asked the judge to seal those filings to shield them from public inspection.
Given the tenor of the medias reporting of this case, including politically-motivated innuendo no doubt intended to disparage the First Family, there is foreseeable risk of prejudice to the privacy rights and reputations of innocent private investors, Westminster Management wrote in court papers.
https://www.propublica.org/article/kushner-company-real-estate-baltimore-lawsuit
The lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, alleges that the Kushner Companies real estate management arm and related corporate entities have been improperly inflating payments owned by tenants by charging them late fees that are often baseless and in excess of state limits and court fees that are not actually approved by any court. The suit alleges that the late fees and court fees set in motion a vicious cycle in which rent payments are partly put toward the fees instead of the actual rent owed, thus deeming the tenant once again late on his or her rent payment, leading to yet more late fees and court fees. Tenants are pressured to pay the snowballing bills with immediate threat of eviction, the suit alleges.
Kushner Companies and its co-defendants sought to have the case transferred from state court to federal court, which would spare it from having to face an all-Baltimore City jury. To have this transfer approved, the defendants needed to show that none of their ownership partners were residents of Maryland. The defendants requested that their submission of the list of partners be sealed from public view, citing the high degree of media interest in Jared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law and senior White House adviser.
Several recent news reports have given a hint of just how far-reaching the network of investors in the Maryland apartment complexes could be. The New York Times reported earlier this month that Kushner Companies last spring secured a $30 million equity investment in the Baltimore complexes and others of its holdings from Menora Mivtachim, one of Israels largest financial institutions, just as Jared Kushner was about to make his first official visit to Israel as President Trumps designated broker of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. More recently, a New Yorker article described the Kushner Companies aggressive pursuit of Chinese investors in its real estate ventures.
In his ruling, Bedar gave the defendants until Feb. 9 to provide the list of their ownership partners. The Kushner Companies could opt instead to return the case to the Circuit Court in Baltimore, if the firm decides the downsides of having to disclose the investment partners in the complexes outweigh the downsides of having the case heard by a Baltimore jury.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/court-rules-jared-kushners-former-firm-cant-keep-business-partners-secret/
Not much is known about who has invested alongside his family over the years, how much money has come from overseas, and which banks and other financial institutions have lent to it. A financial disclosure report that Kushner filed with the federal government in July shows the names of limited liability companies that own properties, but not many of the owners behind them.
In the report, Kushner showed he still owned a stake in Westminster Management, the subsidiary in the Maryland case. The report showed he received $1.6 million in income from it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Nail his smug ass to the wall!
Then, lock him up!
of the botoxed couple, iwanna and her you-marry-your-daddy real estate crook slumlord husband, and the worms and rot inside are revealed.
Israelis? Chinese? Russians?
Any would be plausible as jarhead struggles to maintain his "empire." And now we know one way he's done so--by ripping off poor people, so that he and iwanna can look good* and jet set around.
*not to any discerning observer
