Saudi Investment Fund Had Concerns over Giving Kushner Billions

A recent report from the New York Times claims the Saudi Crown Prince investment fund expressed skepticism over a $2 billion deal with former White House adviser Jared Kushner.

Six months after leaving the White House, Kushner secured a $2 billion investment fund from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his newfound private equity firm, Affinity Partners. However, leading up to the final deal, a panel that screens investments for the Saudi funds expressed concerns, per the Times:

Those objections included: “the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management”; the possibility that the kingdom would be responsible for “the bulk of the investment and risk”; due diligence on the fledgling firm’s operations that found them “unsatisfactory in all aspects”; a proposed asset management fee that “seems excessive”; and “public relations risks” from Mr. Kushner’s prior role as a senior adviser to his father-in-law, former President Donald J. Trump, according to minutes of the panel’s meeting last June 30.

Within days of the $620 billion Public Investment Fund voicing concern over those investments, Mohammed bin Salman overruled the board, leading to speculation that the deal was for a future favor or payback for former President Trump’s treatment of the royal crown after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Jamal Khashoggi was a Washington Post columnist and political activist, a former member and staunch defender of the international Islamist organization called the Muslim Brotherhood, and an outspoken critic of the Saudi monarchy. He was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2018 by a team of Saudi agents. The Saudi government characterizes the killing as a rogue operation.

A Saudi court handed down death sentences for five of the accused in December 2019, but critics say the trial was a whitewash that let the most important players off the hook, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is charged by his detractors with ordering the Khashoggi killing. Last week, a Turkish court halted the trial of 26 Saudi suspects in the murder and transferred the proceedings to Saudi Arabia, a move denounced by Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, as an effort to bury the investigation.

Kushner was reportedly a key player in influencing the Trump administration’s hands-off approach during the incident.

“Affinity, like many other top investment firms, is proud to have PIF and other leading organizations that have careful screening criteria, as investors,” a spokesman for Kushner’s firm said.

The Times reported last year that Kushner had been seeking up to $7 billion in investment funds and has thus far appeared “to have signed up few other major investors” beyond the Saudi royal crown:

In its most recent public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, dated March 31, Mr. Kushner’s firm reported that its main fund had $2.5 billion under management, almost entirely from investors based overseas. Most of that appears to be the $2 billion from Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi documents obtained by The Times say that in return for its investment, the Saudi fund would receive a stake of at least 28 percent in Mr. Kushner’s main investment vehicle.

The Times noted that Kushner had operated according to the laws of the United States and that “many from both parties have profited from connections and experiences gained in government.”

Read the full report here.