Jared Kushner's private equity firm concealed the origins of Saudi-backed funds and used the SEC's own rules to help them do it, report says
Hannah Getahun
Mon, February 13, 2023 at 4:14 AM GMT+1
- In April 2022, The New York Times reported Jared Kushner received $2.5 billion in Saudi-backed funds.
A new Washington Post report reveals how Kushner's company concealed the source of the funds.
On an SEC form, a box reading "Sovereign wealth funds and foreign official institutions" was blank.
Immediately after leaving the White House, former Senior Adviser Jared Kushner created a company that would eventually become a private equity firm with ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
But because of SEC rules on reporting assets from investors of private equity funds, Kushner was able to legally conceal the identity of his investors and list them only as "non-United States persons" according to a new report from the Washington Post.
The New York Times reported in April 2022 that Kushner — who worked on Middle East policy under former President Donald Trump — was able to secure over $2.5 billion in funds for his company Affinity Partners.
Kushner also reportedly tried to leverage his relationship with other Middle Eastern countries like the United Arab Emirates to secure funds for his firm, but this came with little success.
The largest share of money came from the $620 billion Public Investment Fund led by MBS, who personally overstepped recommendations by a Saudi panel advising him against investing in the firm, the Times reported.
In 2018, MBS reportedly bragged that Kushner was "in his pocket."
According to the Post, on a copy of Kushner's Form ADV, an SEC form to register investment ventures, Kushner also lists the client of the $2.5 billion in funds under "Pooled investment vehicles as clients" rather than under "Sovereign wealth funds and foreign official institutions."
Chad Mizelle, an adviser to Kushner's company, told the Post in a statement that this was the correct designation, while the SEC declined to comment.
The form is listed under A Fin Management, which later transformed into Affinity Partners, the Post reported. In the form, Kushner lists Affinity as an "other business name."
Currently, the SEC and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, an enforcement branch of the US Treasury, do not require investment advisers to report or verify the identities of investors or maintain programs that would deter money laundering schemes, according to a letter to the Treasury Department sent by Democratic Senators in the wake of Russian oligarchs using US investment firms to hide their financial activities.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/jared-kushne ... 09212.html 
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