Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is back in the cross hairs once again. This time after a Washington Post report called him out. In a piece titled, “Management company owned by Jared Kushner files to evict hundreds of families as moratoriums expire.”
Westminster Management, which is partially-owned by Jared Kushner – son-in-law to the president, has now filed to evict hundreds of families from their homes as the pandemic rages to new highs.
Letter has reportedly been sent to tenants threatening legal action, fees, as well as filing for eviction in court. Many of the tenants live in Baltimore and say they we unable to pay rent after losing their jobs as a result on the pandemic.
A pandemic moratorium prevents people from being evicted from their homes currently, but the notices and threats by the Westminster company will likely leave hundreds of families without homes when the moratorium expires.
The latest news follows a troubling trend with Kushner. Reports indicate that federally-backed Freddie Mac signed off last year on over $780 million in loans to Kushner Companies. Plus there is evidence of overly friendly terms on his reported deals. Those even said to be among the biggest amounts the company has ever transacted.
Media outlet ProPublica revealed some details about those cushy arrangements. One troubling detail is how Freddie Mac packaged the 16 loans into bonds in August 2019 and sold them to investors.
Which reportedly increase the risk to the agency plus investors who buy bonds with Kushner mortgages in them. A dangerous game to be playing with other people’s money.
Also Freddie Mac then apparently gave the green light for another $60+ million to lend Kushner and company. Those funds allowed Kushner to acquire thousands of apartments on the east coast.
If Kushner and co. default on the loan with decreases in property value, U.S. taxpayers could be on the hook for a big portion of that $850 million financed by Freddie Mac. Kushner better hope and pray that doesn’t happen.
These funds allowed Kushner to purchase thousands of apartments on the east coast. .
Beyond that, another bothersome detail of the arrangement is how Freddie Mac is accused of overestimating the Kushner companies profitability. A highly dangerous game to be playing, especially with someone else’s money.
Freddie Mac says that’s unlikely. However, taxpayers had to bail out the agency and its larger family member, Fannie Mae, during the last real estate crash by the sum of $190 billion as the agencies plummeted.
To address the issue, Freddie Mac said it does “not consider the political affiliations of borrowers or their family members.” And called ProPublica’s analysis “random, arbitrary and incomplete” then asserted that the Kushner loans “fit squarely within our publicly-available credit and underwriting standards.”
On a related note, President Trump and his daughter were granted at least 18 business trademarks by China within a matter of two months back in late 2018.
An almost unprecedented feat accomplished without having exclusive access. Clearly, we see a pattern.
What recourse do the people have? Interesting to note that Kushner’s financial records were made public earlier this year, revealing that the Trump administration funneled millions of dollars in aid to companies with potential conflicts of interests.
Those companies included some that are owned by Jared Kushner and his family as well as buildings operated by Donald Trump’s real estate company.
The Small Business Administration released the records, which cover all loans greater than $150,000 awarded under the Trump administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
The PPP issued more than half a billion dollars in loans that are forgivable if the recipients use most of the funding to maintain payroll or cover rent and other expenses.
The records show that Observer Holdings, LLC, the parent company of Kushner’s former publishing company, Observer Media, received $350,000 in PPP cash.
Kushner is no longer the owner of the company, however, his brother-in-law, Joseph Meyer, counts the company as part of his investment firm, Observer Capital.
The companies Princeton Forrestal LLC and Esplanade Livingston LLC, owned by Kushner’s father, mother, brother, and sister received between $1.35 million and $3 million in PPP funds.
The Trump Organization had 22 tenants at its 40 Wall Street building in downtown Manhattan receive PPP loans totaling more than $16.6 million, records indicate.
At least two companies renting space at the Trump International Hotel on Central Park West and the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., got between $2.1 million and $5.3 million collectively, the records show.
Needless to say, this likely won’t be the last time that Jared Kushner makes headlines.
