Tag: Kushner Companies

Kushner Companies Loses a Key Motion in Class Action Filed by Baltimore Tenants

The following article by Alec MacGillis was posted on the ProPublica.org website July 23 2018:

A state judge declined to dismiss the suit filed by apartment residents who claim they were charged inappropriate and excessive fees.

A Maryland judge is allowing a class action lawsuit against Jared Kushner’s family real estate company to proceed, in a ruling that denies most of the company’s arguments to dismiss the case over its treatment of tenants at large apartment complexes in the Baltimore area.

The lawsuit, filed last September in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, alleges that the Kushner Companies’ real estate management arm, Westminster Management, has been improperly inflating payments owed by tenants by charging them late fees that are often baseless and in excess of state laws limiting them to 5 percent of rent. The suit also claims that Westminster was making some tenants pay so-called 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 churning 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.

The lawsuit followed a May 2017 article co-published by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine that described the highly aggressive legal tactics used by Kushner Companies to pursue tenants and former tenants at 15 apartment complexes in the Baltimore area.

View the complete article here.

Out of Public View, Trumps and Kushners Are Talking Business

The following article by Ben Protess, Steve Eder and Jesse Drucker was posted on the New York Times website March 10, 2018:

Nicole Meyer, Mr. Kushner’s sister, third from left, at a groundbreaking ceremony for the third phase of Pier Village. Credit Patty O’Neill, The Link News

LONG BRANCH, N.J. — Jared Kushner’s family company recently began construction on an oceanfront development in this Jersey Shore city, a project that has the strong backing of local officials, who agreed to support it with $20 million in bonds.

But unknown to Long Branch officials, the Kushners have been in talks to team up with another family-run company that has an even bigger presence in the White House: the Trump Organization.

The Kushners are in private discussions to have President Trump’s company manage at least one hotel at the center of the development known as Pier Village, according to people briefed on the previously unreported talks. The Kushner Companies and the Trump Organization have signed a letter of intent, though no deal is final and the Kushners are not required to inform city officials. Continue reading “Out of Public View, Trumps and Kushners Are Talking Business”

New York regulator asks Deutsche, other banks about Kushner loans: source

The following article article by Karen Freifeld was posted on the Reuters website February 28, 2018:

Credit: Reuters/James Lawler Duggan

New York’s state banking regulator asked Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) and two other lenders for information on their relationships with U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his family’s real estate company, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) made the requests to Deutsche Bank, Signature Bank and New York Community Bank for information on loans and other financial arrangements including lines of credit and loan guarantees a week ago, the person said. Continue reading “New York regulator asks Deutsche, other banks about Kushner loans: source”

Kushner’s Family Business Received Loans After White House Meetings

The following article by Jesse Drucker, Kate Kelly and Ben Protess was posted on the New York Times website February 28, 2018:

Apollo, the private equity firm, and Citigroup made large loans last year to the family real estate business of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s senior adviser.

Early last year, a private equity billionaire started paying regular visits to the White House.

Joshua Harris, a founder of Apollo Global Management, was advising Trump administration officials on infrastructure policy. During that period, he met on multiple occasions with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, said three people familiar with the meetings. Among other things, the two men discussed a possible White House job for Mr. Harris. Continue reading “Kushner’s Family Business Received Loans After White House Meetings”

Tax Plan Crowns a Big Winner: Trump’s Industry

The following article by Patricia Cohen and Jesse Drucker was posted on the New York Times website December 5, 2017:

A real estate investment trust helped rescue a stake held by Kushner Companies in 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Such trusts would get new advantages under Republican tax legislation. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times

After a frenzy of congressional action to rewrite the tax code, salesclerks and chief executives are calculating their gains. Business was treated with the everyone’s-a-winner approach that ensures no summer camper goes home without a trophy.

Some got special prizes. Cruise lines, craft beer and wine producers (even foreign ones), car dealers, private equity, and oil and gas pipeline managers did particularly well. And perhaps the biggest winner is the industry where President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, made their millions: commercial real estate.

House and Senate Republicans, in their divergent bills, both offered steeply reduced rates to corporate giants, partnerships and family-owned firms across the board. But when it came time to eliminate special breaks or impose tighter standards, real estate was generally excused from the room. Continue reading “Tax Plan Crowns a Big Winner: Trump’s Industry”

Kushner Sought $500 Million Bailout From Top Qatari Investor: Report

The following article by Eric Levitz was posted on the New York Magazine site July 10, 2017:

Jared Kushner, left, White House senior adviser, listens to President Trump during a meeting with cybersecurity experts at the White House on Jan. 31. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Jared Kushner has no experience in public service or policymaking. His only qualification for his senior White House position (beyond having been born and betrothed to the right people) is the business savvy that allowed him to avoid squandering his family’s enormous fortune (for the moment, anyway).

In 2007, Kushner’s killer instinct told him that the real-estate market had nowhere to go but up. And so the 26-year-old mogul decided to plow $500 million of his family’s money — and $1.3 billion in borrowed capital — into purchasing 666 Fifth Avenue for twice the price it had previously sold for. Even if we’d somehow avoided a global financial crisis, this would have been a bad bet: Before the crash, when the building was almost fully occupied, it generated only about two-thirds of the revenue the Kushners needed to keep up with their debt payments. Continue reading “Kushner Sought $500 Million Bailout From Top Qatari Investor: Report”