The Kushners’ ‘opportunity’
Could gain from tax break they touted
WASHINGTON — At an Oval Office gathering earlier this year, President Trump touted his administration’s “Opportunity Zone” program, which gives big tax breaks to developers who invest in downtrodden communities. He then turned to one of the plan’s strongest supporters.
“Ivanka, would you like to say something?” Trump asked his daughter. “You’ve been pushing this very hard.”
The Opportunity Zone program promoted by Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, both senior White House advisers, could also benefit them financially, the Associated Press found.
Government watchdogs say the case underscores the ethical minefield they created two years ago when they became two of the closest advisers to the President without divesting from their extensive real estate investments.
Kushner holds a big stake in a real estate investment firm, Cadre, that recently announced it is launching a series of Opportunity Zone funds that seek to build major projects under the program from Miami to Los Angeles. Separately, the couple owns interests in at least 13 properties held by Kushner’s family firm that could qualify for tax breaks because they are in Opportunity Zones in New Jersey, New York and Maryland.
There’s no evidence the couple had a hand in the selecting any of the 8,700 Opportunity Zones, and the company has not indicated it plans to seek the tax breaks. But the Kushners could profit even if they don’t do anything — by potentially benefiting from a surge in Opportunity Zone property values amid a gold rush of interest from developers and investors.
Ivanka Trump’s advocacy for the Opportunity Zone program “creates a direct conflict of interest with her spouse’s investment in Cadre,” said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel for the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The couple’s financial disclosures put their joint assets at between $200 million and $800 million, with much of it in real estate, including $25 million$50 million interest in a holding company with an ownership stake in Cadre. Those documents require recusal from dealing with matters that touch on real estate and “have a direct and predictable effect on Cadre.”
Abbe Lowell, the couple’s ethics counsel, said in a statement Ivanka Trump “adheres to the ethics advice she has received ... about what issues she can work on and those to which she is recused.”
Kushner Cos. did not respond to comment requests.
President Trump was set to attend an Opportunity Zone event in Washington on Wednesday that would depict the program as a boon to distressed communities. Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said governors of both parties nominate areas for Opportunity Zone designation: “The White House has nothing to do with those decisions.”
The Investing in Opportunity Act, which became law last December as part of the GOP tax overhaul, never gained traction during the Obama administration, but it found favor in a White House dominated by real estate developers and investors.
A significant moment came when the law’s key GOP sponsor, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, met Trump after the fatal white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., last year.
Trump promised to back Scott for Opportunity Zones to show his outreach to minority communities. But Scott had found a supporter in Ivanka Trump in talks that grew out of meetings about a child-care tax credit.
Political sponsors and lobbyists told the AP Ivanka Trump was key in promoting the legislation, while Kushner was also quietly supportive.
Scott spokesman Sean Smith said the senator and Ivanka Trump spoke nearly a dozen times, and Scott also spoke to Kushner about it, but noted, “It was much more Ivanka than Jared.”
There is no indication the Kushners intervened in the shaping of the Opportunity Zone program to advance their financial interests. But backers of the program acknowledge Ivanka Trump’s outfront role drummed up interest from public officials and financial stakeholders.
Government officials have estimated the program would cost $1.5 billion in lost tax revenue over 10 years, but Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has estimated the zones would attract up to $100 billion in renewal efforts.