Thread: In a Beijing ballroom, Kushner family flogs $500,000 investor visa to wealthy Chinese

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In a Beijing ballroom, Kushner family flogs $500,000 ‘investor visa’ to wealthy Chinese

The event was hosted by the Chinese company Qiaowai, which connects U.S. companies with Chinese investors. (Emily Rauhala/The Washington Post)

By Emily Rauhala May 6 at 7:31 AM

BEIJING — The Kushner family came to the United States as refugees, worked hard and made it big — and if you invest in Kushner properties, so can you.

That was the message delivered Saturday by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s sister to a ballroom full of wealthy Chinese investors, renewing questions about the Kushner family’s business ties to China.

Over several hours of slideshows and presentations, representatives from the Kushner family business urged Chinese citizens gathered at the Ritz-Carlton hotel to consider investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a New Jersey real estate project to secure what’s known as an investor visa.

The EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, which allows foreign investors to invest in U.S. projects that create jobs and then apply to immigrate, has been used by both the Trump and Kushner family businesses.

But President Trump’s vow to crack down on immigration, as well as criticism from members of Congress, has led to questions about the future of a program known here as the “golden visa.”

The reception desk at the Ritz-Carlton. (Emily Rauhala/The Washington Post)

The EB-5 has been extremely popular among rich Chinese who are eager to get their families — and their wealth — out of the country, though the fact that some move their money out illegally has made the program unpopular with the Chinese government, too.

In the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton on Saturday, Chinese investors were advised to invest sooner rather than later in case the rules change. “Invest early, and you will invest under the old rules,” one speaker said.

The woman identified as “Jared’s sister” was believed to be Nicole Kushner, who is involved in the family business, not Dara Kushner, who generally stays out of the spotlight. But the woman’s face was not clearly visible from the back of the ballroom, where reporters were told to remain.

Saturday’s event in Beijing was hosted by the Chinese company Qiaowai, which connects U.S. companies with Chinese investors. The tagline on a brochure for the event: “Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States.”

Qiaowai is working with Kushner to secure funding for Kushner 1, a real estate project in New Jersey. Promotional materials tout the buildings’ proximity to Manhattan and note that the project will create more than 6,000 jobs.

“This project has stable funding, creates sufficient jobs and guarantees the safety of investors’ money,” one description reads.
Although there was no visible reference to Trump, the materials noted the Kushner family’s “celebrity” status. Wang Yun, a Chinese investor who attended the event, said the Kushner family’s ties to Trump, via son-in-law Jared, were a part of the project’s appeal — but also a source of concern.

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“Even though this is the project of the son-in-law’s family, of course it is still affiliated,” Wang.

Wang reasoned that the link to Trump would be a boon if the presidency goes well but could be disastrous if it does not: “We heard that there are rumors that he is the most likely to be impeached president in American history. That’s why I doubt this project.”

Many of the people who attended the event declined to be interviewed, citing privacy concerns, or were blocked by organizers from speaking to the news media.

Though the event was publicly advertised in Beijing, the hosts were exceptionally anxious about the presence of reporters.Journalists were initially seated at the back of the ballroom, but as the presentations got underway, a public-relations representative asked The Washington Post to leave, saying the presence of foreign reporters threatened the “stability” of the event.

At one point, organizers grabbed a reporter’s phone and backpack to try to force that person to leave. Later, as investors started leaving the ballroom, organizers physically surrounded attendees to stop them from giving interviews.

Asked why reporters were asked to leave, a public-relations representative, who declined to identify herself, said simply, “This is not the story we want.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.798604d96fac

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Congcong Zhang reported from Beijing.

Eeeeew. Oh stop this, please!! But here's the reason they do it, Americans don't have any money. To finance your projects is hard to impossible sometimes. So people doing projects look outside the US for reverse investment to tap into foreign investment. This visa is a carrot to help try to lure that money into our country.

But what would be better for our country is for Trump's Agenda to get through, that would bring trillions of capital back to the US and a percentage of that would be available for new development projects. New development projects are very important, they are what turn blighted areas into new beautiful profitable sections of our inner cities and even smaller communities across the country. We all want that, but capital is tight because our country is so broke and so much money is controlled by the banks who are nightmare for developers to work with,

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@ Jared Kushner didn't disclose business ties to George Soros, Peter Thiel, and Goldman Sachs, or that he owes $1 BILLION in loans


@ Jared Kushner didn't disclose business ties to George Soros, $1 BILLION in loans

I read this a while ago and it concerned me. There was also another advisor or someone close to Trump in the White house that was also involved with Sorro's the article stated. Sorro's has his claws in the influential people in Washington. Sort of like making a deal with the devil Sorro's owns them.

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Jared Kushner didn't disclose business ties to George Soros, Peter Thiel, and Goldman Sach, or that he owes $1 BILLION in loans