Report: U.S. attorney subpoenaed Kushner Companies over investment-for-visa program
A U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn has subpoenaed the New York property development business owned by Jared Kushner's family, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The firm, Kushner Companies, was subpoenaed in May over an investment-for-immigration program, according to the report, at at least one development in Jersey City, New Jersey. The development, it said, was partially financed by a federal visa program known as EB-5.
The program allows entrepreneurs, their spouses and children under 21 to apply for a green card. Congress created the program in 1990 to "stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors." Lawmakers then created the Immigrant Investor Program in 1992, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It says that it sets aside EB-5 visas for people who invest in commercial enterprises associated with regional centers approved by the government agency.
As part of the subpoena, New York prosecutors requested documents and emails, the report said, but it isn't clear what potential violations are being investigated.
"Kushner Companies utilized the program, fully complied with its rules and regulations and did nothing improper. We are cooperating with legal requests for information," the company's general counsel, Emily Wolf, told the newspaper.
The report says that the family company also used the EB-5 program for another Jersey City property as well, but it's unclear if the subpoena also applies to that one.
Kushner's personal attorney said in a statement Wednesday that he had recused himself from "matters concerning the EB-5 programs," the report said.