Chinese investors offered visas
ORGANISERS barred journalists yesterday from a publicly advertised event in Shanghai that offered Chinese investors the chance to get US immigrant visas if they put money in a real estate project linked to the family of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
The two-tower luxury apartment complex in New Jersey, One Journal Square, is being developed by the KABR Group and Kushner Companies, which until recently was headed by senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka.
The developers are seeking to raise $150-million (R2.2-billion), or 15.4% of funding for the project, from investors through the EB-5 visa programme, according to marketing materials posted by the event’s organiser, immigration agency Qiaowai.
The controversial EB-5 programme allows wealthy foreigners to, in effect, buy US immigration visas for themselves and families by investing at least $500 000 (R7.3-million) in certain development projects.
“Sorry, this is a private event,” a man stopping journalists from entering a function room yesterday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai said. Guests at the event said Kushner’s sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, spoke for about 10 minutes, including about her family’s humble roots.
According to the New York Times, Meyer attended a similar event in Beijing on Saturday and told the audience of about 100 people the project “means a lot to me and my entire family”.
Kushner, whose White House portfolio includes relations with China, sold his stake in Kushner Companies to a family trust earlier this year.
A Kushner Companies spokeswoman declined to comment in a New York Times article about the Beijing event.
The Times story said Meyer did not respond when asked if she was concerned about possible conflicts of interest facing her brother.
Journalists from the Times and Washington Post were removed from the Beijing event.
The EB-5 programme is popular among wealthy Chinese looking to shift assets abroad or move overseas, but it has come under fire in the United States.
Some US legislators have called for changing or abolishing the programme, but the scheme was recently renewed by Congress until September 30.