Albania

Albanian Watchdog: Businessman in Kushner Resort Deal Allegedly Forged Deeds

Is this a corruption catastrophe or a legitimate project unfairly tainted by a seller's past?

Published JUL 13

Albanian Watchdog: Businessman in Kushner Resort Deal Allegedly Forged Deeds

Story

Above: Jared Kushner (center) and Ivanka Trump (right) in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8. Image credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The Facts

Albania's Special Structure Against Corruption and Organised Crime (SPAK) has frozen roughly €110 million ($125 million) tied to a land sale after alleging that Miami-based businessman Artur Shehu used forged property documents and laundered cocaine profits to build a real estate portfolio.
Newsweek
Al Jazeera
Shehu sold a strip of Albanian coastline in April to Albania Land Development, a company owned by Sazan Real Estate Development and other investors behind a resort project linked to Jared Kushner, for around €110 million.
La Tercera
The Straits Times
SPAK case files, running to 200 pages and dated June 12, accuse Shehu and associates of trafficking South American cocaine into European ports and laundering proceeds through falsified property titles. The files make no allegation of wrongdoing against Kushner or resort developers.
Newsweek
Reuters
Shehu's lawyer, Kujtim Cakrani, denied all accusations, telling Reuters his client is "neither a drug trafficker nor a forger of property documents" and that Shehu's family had held the land since the Ottoman era.
Al Jazeera
The Straits Times
Residents of the village of Zvernec have contested Shehu's ownership of the land in Albanian courts for more than a decade, presenting title deeds and tax records they say prove their rightful ownership. Their lawyer plans to seek a court order halting the resort project.
Newsweek
USSA News
The Kushner-backed resort, announced on social media in 2024, is planned along beaches, forest and wetlands home to sea turtles and flamingos near Vlora. Protests against the project, dubbed the "Flamingo Revolution," have broadened into calls for Prime Minister Edi Rama's resignation.
Raw Story
Al Jazeera

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

This corruption nightmare could be seen from a mile away. With Albania's property sector saturated with organized crime, and experts saying much of the investment will flow to criminal networks, it's no surprise that a Miami businessman wanted for cocaine money laundering has been caught in the middle of this reckless deal. Not only is this a poor business deal and immoral, but pursuing it directly undermines Jared's father-in-law's anti-drug trafficking agenda.

The Washington Examiner

Raw Story

Narrative B

The Kushner resort investigation targets a seller, not Kushner, with SPAK explicitly telling CBS News its probe doesn't concern any Kushner-linked company, and Reuters found no evidence that buyers knew of any suspicions. The real issue is Albania's broken land records and villagers with competing title claims that deserve resolution in court before construction advances. As long as this resort is built on a clean title, it's perfectly acceptable.