Kushner family investor and Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz is sentenced to five years in a Romanian prison for the operations of an organized crime group he created between 2006 and 2008.
The group bribed public officials in Romania out of $145 million. Political adviser Tal Silberstein, Romanian businessman Remus Truica, and former royal family member Prince Paul are also sentenced in connection with Steinmetz.
Steinmetz’s family is invested in 15 properties owned by Kushner Companies. Their working relationship was hidden for at least five years thanks to a shell company called Gaia Investment Corp. The business is listed on Jared Kushner’s 2017 ethics disclosure as GAIA JC LLC.
[Raz] Steinmetz, who hails from one of Israel’s richest families, has been working with Kushner since at least 2012, Bloomberg reported. The Downtown Manhattan properties they jointly own are worth $150 million and the two sides also partnered on the Trump Bay Street project in Jersey City, according to Bloomberg.
The Real Deal
In 2017, Beny Steinmetz was facing legal cases / investigations for money laundering and bribery in at least four other countries: the United States, Israel, Switzerland, and Guinea. At least one of the cases, in Guinea, is still underway.
The Kushner family tries to distance itself from Beny Steinmetz by claiming they only work with his nephew, Raz. That ignores the fact that Raz’s overall financial operations are tied to his uncle Beny and his father Daniel.
Just days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Beny obtained a new attorney for his legal troubles: Alan Dershowitz, previously the legal representative for Jeffrey Epstein who later represents Trump.
Sources
https://www.timesofisrael.com/romania-sentences-israeli-magnate-steinmetz-in-145m-organized-crime-case/
https://therealdeal.com/2017/04/26/israeli-billionaire-is-kushners-partner-on-15-manhattan-buildings/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/us/politics/jared-kushner-beny-steinmetz.html
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-steinmetz-hires-weinstein-dershowitz-for-defense-team-1001173813
Photo: Gage Skidmore
