Jared Kushner Hit With New Investigation

Senate Democrats are launching a new investigation into the foreign payments made to Jared Kushner’s investment firm.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden announced the probe on Wednesday, saying that the panel would investigate the billions of dollars that Affinity Partners manages from foreign sources.

Kushner started Affinity in July 2021, less than six months after leaving the White House as a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump. The firm quickly attracted big-time investors from the Middle East and within weeks, landed $2 billion from the Saudi public investment fund. Affinity continues to overwhelmingly derive the majority of its funds from the Saudi Arabian government.

“It is deeply concerning that several Middle Eastern governments are using funds managed by Affinity as a means to pay tens of millions of dollars in fees every year to former President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, creating significant conflicts of interest and potential counterintelligence risks,” Wyden wrote to Affinity Partners Chief Financial Officer Lauren Key on Wednesday.

Affinity has disclosed to regulators that 99 percent of the $3 billion of assets that the firm manages come from non-U.S. persons. The $1 billion not funded by Saudi Arabia is reportedly split between sovereign wealth funds owned by the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, Taiwanese billionaire and politician Terry Gou, and another investor whose identity has not yet been publicized.

On Wednesday, Wyden raised concern that Kushner and others were using Affinity’s foreign-funded private investment funds as a loophole, exploiting those accounts to avoid federal laws that require Americans to disclose payments from foreign governments.

He estimated that Affinity receives at least $60 million in management fees annually from its exclusively foreign investor base and that from 2022 to 2023, the Saudi PIF alone paid the firm at least $80 million in management fees.

“As the founder and sole owner of Affinity, Kushner is the biggest beneficiary of the fees paid to Affinity by the Saudi PIF and other Gulf state clients,” Wyden wrote.

Newsweek reached out to Affinity Partners via inquiry form for comment.

During his time at the White House, Kushner advised his father-in-law on foreign affairs, advocating for the Trump administration to embrace Saudi Arabia. Kushner, a staunch defender of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, remained close with the royal even after U.S. officials found that he orchestrated the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.

“The Saudi PIF’s decision to invest $2 billion in Affinity so soon after Kushner’s departure from the Trump White House raises concerns that the investment was a reward for official actions Kushner took to benefit the Saudi government, including preventing accountability for the Saudi government ordering the brutal murder of journalist and American citizen Jamal Khashoggi,” Wyden said.

He continued, “Moreover, in the final two weeks of the Trump Administration, Mr. Kushner traveled to Saudi Arabia purportedly on official business—even though any reasonable window for meaningful foreign policy achievements would have closed with an upcoming inauguration of a new President.”

Wyden expressed concern that Kushner’s “limited track record as an investor, including his nonexistent experience in private equity or hedge funds, raise questions regarding the investment strategy behind the seeding investments and lucrative compensation that Affinity received from the Saudi PIF and other sovereign wealth funds.”

The Oregon Democrat asked Affinity to turn over records and information pertaining to the tens of millions in payments that the firm receives from foreign sources every year. He asked that the firm provide answers no later than June 26.