Jared Kushner‘s luxury coastal resort project in Albania was under investigation by the country’s anti-corruption prosecutors amid growing protests against the development, Politico reported on Monday.
President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law is the head of Affinity Partners, a private equity firm behind a project slated to include 10,000 hotel rooms located “on the uninhabited Adriatic island of Sazan and several hundred hectares of the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape, a sensitive coastal wetland area home to flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites,” according to Politico.
Albania’s special anti-corruption prosecution office, SPAK, said it had launched a probe into the change in land ownership in 2024, as questions have been raised about the land’s protected status.
Kushner is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and has a multi-billion dollar real estate portfolio. He has been serving as the president’s special envoy for peace and has been involved in negotiations involving Iran, Gaza and the war in Ukraine, which has raised eyebrows among critics over potential conflicts of interest.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has confirmed to Politico that the negotiations around the project were ongoing. He has “denied that the project encroaches on a protected wildlife reserve and said that the final proposal has yet to be submitted and the environmental study is not complete.”
Protests have broken out in the country over the project since May, with people calling for the project to be halted and to protect the area. Activists have also called for the prime minister to resign.
Some of the demonstrations have become violent.
“Footage emerged — after protests Saturday — of private security guards appearing to assault and then drag a protester along a cliff, while threatening other demonstrators who attempted to remove fences and halt construction,” Politico reported.
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