Kushner family apologizes for mentioning White House adviser Jared Kushner - May. 8, 2017 - 0 views
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Kushner Companies said Monday that the name drop at the event in Beijing on Saturday was not intended to be an "attempt to lure investors"
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Nicole Kushner Meyer, the sister of White House adviser and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, mentioned her brother's new role in the administration during a pitch for her family's property
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"In 2008, my brother Jared Kushner joined the family company as CEO, and recently moved to Washington to join the administration," she said at the conference.
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Kushner Companies said it didn't mean for the comment to be interpreted as an incentive for investors to sign onto the project.
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The EB-5 visa allows immigrants a path to a green card if they invest more than $500,000 in a project that creates jobs in the United States
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Kushner Companies says about 15% of its New Jersey building -- a $976.4 million residential and commercial project called 1 Journal Square -- will be funded through the EB-5 program.
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program is used by foreigners, particularly wealthy Chinese nationals, as a way into the United States
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Noble said the incident demonstrates why such connections can be dangerous. The company's foreign partners would understandably jump at the chance to push any perceived connections to the White House.
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The White House said Monday that it is "evaluating wholesale reform" of the program along with Congress to ensure it is "used as intended and that investment is being spread to all areas of the country."
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administration is "exploring the possibility of raising the price of the visa to further bring the program in line with its intent."
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Kushner is not involved in the operation of Kushner Companies and divested his interests in the Journal Square project by selling them to a family trust that he, his wife and his children are not beneficiaries of, which was suggested by the Office of Government Ethics.
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Noble, the ethics attorney, said it's unlikely that Nicole Kushner Meyer violated any laws. In Jared Kushner's case, Noble said it depends on what he has divested and whether he follows through with the promise to not participate in EB-5 matters.