Report: Kushner Companies routinely filed false paperwork with New York officials

BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 03/18/18 10:20 AM EDT 1,197
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The Kushner Cos. reportedly filed false paperwork with New York City officials regarding the apartment buildings it owned.

The Associated Press reported that the company in 2015 bought three apartment buildings in Queens.
The company, which was run at the time by White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, then pushed people out and raised rents in the buildings even though many of the tenants were protected by rules that said developers couldn't raise rents or push them out to create a profit, according to the news service.

Kushner Cos. sold the buildings two years later for nearly double the price it paid to buy them, the AP reported.

The AP reported that the company often filed paperwork with New York City saying it didn't have any rent-regulated tenants in the buildings it owned.

But, according to the AP, it had hundreds of rent-regulated tenants across the city.

"It's bare-faced greed," said Aaron Carr, founder of Housing Rights Initiative, a tenants' rights watchdog that compiled the work permit documents and gave them to The Associated Press.

"The fact that the company was falsifying all these applications with the government shows a sordid attempt to avert accountability and get a rapid return on its investment."

Kushner Cos. said in a statement that if there are "mistakes or violations" in its documents, "corrective action is taken immediately." The company said that third parties are responsible for putting together such documents, which are then looked at by an independent counsel.

"Kushner would never deny any tenant their due-process rights," Kushner Cos. told the AP.

It also said it "has renovated thousands of apartments and developments with minimal complaints over the past 30 years."

The Housing Rights Initiative said there were at least 80 false applications filed by the Kushner Cos. for construction permits from 2013 to 2016. The applications were most often signed by an employee of Kushner, according to the AP.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...paperwork-with