Local residents in Albania are accusing Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump of attempting to take land away from them for two luxury resort projects.
The daughter and son-in-law of former President Donald Trump are looking to invest almost $1bn in the area. Kushner previously announced his plans to build a hotel and a number of beach villas on a part of land that has been farmed by an Albanian family for generations but which was seized from them after the end of the Communist regime in 1991, according to The New York Times.
“They are trying to take from us what is ours,” Bledar Alexandros Konomi told the paper. Konomi used to help take care of cattle on the part of the mainland where Kushner now wants to build a hotel. His claim to the land is supported by court records.
Kushner is also seeking exclusive development rights on the small island of Sazan, where the Soviet Union stored military supplies during the Cold War.
A second bid to develop the island has been submitted by an Albanian-American developer from New York, documents obtained by The Times show.
Developer Evi Kokalari-Angelakis told the paper that the Albanian government has disregarded her proposal to ingratiate themselves with the former president in the event he returns to office in January.
Kokalari-Angelakis added that she chose to speak to the paper after Ivanka Trump claimed in July that she and Kushner had made an agreement to develop Sazan, which was used as a submarine base by Italy during World War II.
Opposition party member in the Albanian parliament Agron Shehaj said the process of choosing a developer had lacked transparency, which “makes it look like this is a private deal that is in the political interest of the prime minister of Albania.”
Prime Minister Edi Rama and Kushner both rejected the notion that the former president had anything to do with the development process.
“The fact that such a renowned American entrepreneur shows his interest on investing in Albania makes us very proud and happy,” a spokesperson for the prime minister told The Times in a statement. “It shows on another level to the U.S. and the world that there is a new rising star in the beautiful Mediterranean world of tourism named Albania.”
The projects on the Albanian coastline are not connected to the Trump Organization, which is partly owned by Trump, and it will not be linked to the Trump name.
Kushner, a former White House advisor to Trump, has established an investment company called Affinity Partners, which is supported mostly by funds coming from the Saudi Arabian government.
The former advisor told The Times that his plans had raised Albania’s status as a tourist destination.
“We want to make something that people can be very proud of,” he told the paper.
“We have this 1,400-acre island in the Mediterranean and we’re bringing in the best architects and the best brands,” Ivanka Trump said on the Lex Fridman Podcast earlier this summer.
An American real estate executive put in charge of the projects by Kushner, Asher Abehsera, told The Times that while the Albanian government has given preliminary approval to go ahead with negotiations to build the hotel complex on Sazan, which is now controlled by the Albanian military, final terms have yet to be determined.
Both Abehsera and Kushner told the paper they’re not receiving any special treatment.
On the mainland, villagers in Zvernec, near the site where one of the projects is planned, have notified Kushner that they claim to own the land, which is subject to several disputes.
Konomi, a University of Cincinnati professor of statistics, told the paper that it’s “very obvious that a big corruption scheme is going on.”
“We are confident we are working with the rightful titleholders,” Abehsera told The Times. “If proven otherwise, we will respectfully withdraw from the purchase.”
