Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner’s planned multibillion-dollar development in Albania has acquired a more consequential problem than the protests that have surrounded it for months: the developers were warned that ownership of key beachfront property was already being contested before a Kushner-backed group committed more than $120 million to buy it.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that residents of Zvërnec wrote to Kushner’s organization roughly two years ago, telling the developers they had been fighting for years over land claimed by businessman Artur Shehu and urging them not to proceed. A Kushner-backed development group nevertheless completed the acquisition earlier this year.
Documents from Albania’s Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, or SPAK, reviewed by Reuters, allege there is reasonable suspicion that assets associated with Shehu were obtained using falsified ownership documents. Prosecutors also accuse Shehu and associates of involvement in cocaine trafficking and laundering proceeds through real estate.
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Shehu denies the allegations. His lawyer, Kujtim Cakrani, told Reuters that Shehu was neither a drug trafficker nor a property-document forger and maintained that Shehu’s family had owned the land since the Ottoman era.
The SPAK documents put the April sale at approximately €110 million. Prosecutors ordered the funds frozen in a notary account, preventing them from reaching Shehu, according to Reuters.
CBS News separately reported that an Albanian court confirmed the existence of an order involving more than $127 million from the transaction, although the court would not release it while preliminary investigations were underway.
It is worthy to note that Albanian authorities have not accused Kushner, Sazan Real Estate Development, Albania Land Development, or the project’s other investors of participating in Shehu’s alleged crimes.
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The Wall Street Journal report higlights that the developers may not have known about the later criminal allegations, but local residents say they had already warned Kushner about the underlying ownership dispute before the transaction was completed.
Sazan Real Estate Development has maintained that the acquisitions were lawful and has said it will cooperate with legal processes. CBS reported that the company stressed it was neither a party to the criminal matter nor a target of the investigation.
The Zvërnec development forms part of a broader Albanian investment plan that the Wall Street Journal has valued at about $5 billion, including a separate ultra-luxury development proposed for nearby Sazan Island.
The projects have helped ignite the “Flamingo Revolution,” a protest movement initially centered on the environmental impact of development around the protected Narta Lagoon before expanding into broader complaints over corruption, land ownership, and political power. Thousands have participated in demonstrations since late May, AP News reports.
The legal dispute over the Zvërnec property is also unresolved. Reuters reported that residents have been challenging Shehu’s ownership claims in cases dating back more than a decade and intend to seek a court order stopping the resort.
Despite those pressures, there is no verified basis for saying the project has collapsed.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama explicitly rejected suggestions in June that the development had been canceled or suspended, saying investors were still developing a formal plan. Reuters reported a month later that his government continued to say the project was moving ahead.
That leaves Albania in a different position from Serbia. Kushner’s Affinity-backed company withdrew in December, according to Reuters, from a roughly $500 million redevelopment of the former Yugoslav army headquarters in Belgrade after months of opposition and a Serbian prosecution involving government officials responsible for clearing legal obstacles around the protected site.
No wrongdoing was alleged against Kushner or his company.
