Kushners drop much-criticised effort to raise US$150m from Chinese millionaire migrants

The family real estate company once run by Jared Kushner is no longer seeking US$150 million from Chinese investors for a New Jersey building project after months of criticism that the company was playing up its White House ties to raise the money.

A person familiar with the fundraising effort said this week that the company has stopped trying to raise money from wealthy Chinese to help pay for One Journal Square, a planned 66-story residential, retail and office complex in Jersey City, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan. The person was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Ethics experts blasted the Kushner Companies last May after Jared Kushner’s sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, mentioned her brother at a presentation to prospective investors in Shanghai. The presentation included a photo of Donald Trump, and Chinese ads included vague promises that the project had “government support” and was “founded by celebrity developers.”

The company, which cancelled other appearances in the country, denied it was seeking to benefit from its White House ties.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, resigned as CEO of Kushner Companies last year to become a senior adviser to the president.

The Jersey City project is just one of several by the Kushner family company, but it has been thrown in the spotlight as a test of whether the people close to Trump are profiting from his presidency.

The Kushner Companies and its partner, KABR Group, were trying to raise the money under the so-called EB-5 programme offering temporary US visas for foreign investors who put at least US$500,000 in certain projects to help revive economically struggling areas and create jobs. The programme has been criticised by lawmakers and others for targeting areas that don’t need it as well as for attracting fraudsters.