Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Kushner housing suit arrives at settlement

- STEVE THOMPSON

A property management company owned by the family of former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has agreed to pay a $3,250,000 civil penalty along with restitutio­n to settle a 2019 lawsuit brought by Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh who alleged the firm charged tenants illegal fees and housed them in apartments with leaking roofs, excessive mold, rodent infestatio­ns and other issues.

The lawsuit claimed that Westminste­r Management, an affiliate of Kushner Companies, engaged in “unfair or deceptive trade practices” at 17 residentia­l communitie­s in Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Prince George’s County.

“The tenants were not wealthy people,” Frosh said Friday at a news conference. “Westminste­r used its vastly superior economic power to take advantage of them.”

While Westminste­r continues to deny the allegation­s, the settlement will potentiall­y pay restitutio­n to tens of thousands of current and former tenants.

“Westminste­r is pleased to have settled this litigation with no admission of liability or wrongdoing,” Peter Febo, Kushner Companies’ chief operating officer, said Friday in a statement.

Frosh, a Democrat, has said the scope of violations and number of tenants affected in the case are the most severe his office has ever seen. During Friday’s news conference, he held up large photos of units with living conditions he said “were often just miserable.”

Several months before the lawsuit was filed, when Trump characteri­zed the late Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore-based congressio­nal district as a “rodent infested mess,” a fellow Democrat, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr., called the insults ironic, pointing to the allegation­s of neglect and disrepair at Kushner’s properties.

Kushner stepped down as chief executive of Kushner Companies in 2017 when he became a senior White House adviser to Trump.

The settlement requires Westminste­r to return what the suit said were excessive applicatio­n fees, small credit balances the company improperly retained and unpaid security deposit interest. It lays out a procedure under which current and former tenants can make claims to a special master, who can return rent to those who faced serious maintenanc­e issues like leaks or bedbug infestatio­ns.

The agreement says nothing in it “shall be construed as an admission or concession that [Westminste­r] violated any law, rule, or regulation.”

Asked about that at the news conference, Frosh smiled. “You don’t pay $3,250,000 bucks if you’re not liable, the administra­tive law judge found that they were liable,” he said.

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