The sister of
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner reportedly pushed Chinese citizens in
a presentation at a Beijing hotel to invest hundreds of dollars in a luxury
New
Jersey apartment complex that would help them obtain an investor visa.
Nichole
Kushner Meyer made the pitch at a Ritz-Carlton in front of wealthy Chinese
investors as investors were told to invest sooner rather than later in case the
Trump administration changes the visa rules, The Washington Post reported
Saturday. A tagline on the brochure reportedly read: “Invest $500,000 and
immigrate to the United States.”
Though Jared
Kushner was not part of the event, his sister’s work in China for the Kushner
family shows how his private business affairs could collide with his work in
the Trump administration. Kushner has reportedly divested from parts of his
family business, including the project in Beijing, ethics officials slammed the
event, calling it an attempt to cash-in on Kushner’s influence in China.
“It’s
incredibly stupid and highly inappropriate,” Richard Painter, the former chief
White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, told The Washington
Post. “They clearly imply that the Kushners are going to make sure you get your
visa. They’re not going to take a
chance. Of course they’re going to want to invest.”
The program
Meyer flouted in the presentation Saturday is called the EB-5 immigrant
investor visa program. It allows wealthy foreign investors who are willing to
invest large sums in U.S. projects that create jobs to apply to immigrate to
the U.S., according to The Post. The Trump and Kushner businesses have both
benefited from the visa program, according to Bloomberg. Jared Kushner had
raised some $50 million from visa applicants for a Trump-backed apartment
building in Jersey City, N.J.
The newspaper
noted that the program is popular among rich Chinese citizens who are eager to
get their families out of the country. However, the Government Accountability
Office said in 2015 that the EB-5 program carried a “high risk of fraud” and
had “no reliable method to verify the source of the funds of petitioners.”
The program
had previously been scrutinized by Congress, saying it essentially sells visas
to wealthy foreigners.
Fox News*
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