Kushner’s company won $500m in loans after White House talks
JARED KUSHNER is under scrutiny after it emerged his family company secured more than $500 million (£364m) in loans after financial executives met with him at the White House.
Mr Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-inlaw, stepped down as chief executive of the company to become a senior adviser to the US president.
But it has since emerged that last year his company secured two sizeable loans – $325 million from Citigroup and $184 million from Apollo Global Management – after executives from both firms visited him in the White House.
It is highly unusual for White House officials to conduct meetings with executives who are also engaged in significant private business dealings and Mr Kushner’s judgment has been called into question by ethics experts.
It comes as Mr Kushner was stripped of his access to “top secret” intelligence because he does not have permanent security clearance after more than a year in the role. Mr Kushner’s financial dealings and concerns that foreign governments might try to influence him are thought to have formed part of the delay in granting any such clearance.
The 37-year-old, who is married to Ivanka Trump, previously headed up Kushner Companies, the family business, before passing control to relatives when he entered the White House.
The company reportedly has $1.2 billion in debt that is due in January 2019, with Mr Kushner said to have been attempting to secure new investment before he entered office.
Joshua Harris, one of Apollo’s founders, made regular visits to the White House in the first half of last year to advise the Trump administration on infrastructure policy. He also met Mr Kushner on “multiple occasions” and discussed a possible role in the White House, according to the New York Times.
The job did not materialise, but last November Apollo lent Mr Kushner’s company $184 million for mortgage payments on one of its properties in Chicago. The loan appears to be three times the size of Apollo’s average property loans.
Meanwhile Citigroup gave the company a $325million loan shortly after Michael L Corbat, its chief executive, met with Mr Kushner at the White House. Citigroup and Apollo denied the meetings were linked to the loans they provided to Kushner Companies.