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Trump and Kushner bring a real estate mentality to the political process—and the big loser in this deal will be the American people. nytimes.com/2019/05/19/us/… 
Charlie Kushner was long the king of leverage—trying to solve big problems with other people’s money. I write about this in #KushnerInc.
“Debt was Charlie’s friend,” family friend and former colleague Alan Hammer told me in an interview. “It enabled him to buy what he bought. He paid more than other people for great properties because the other people didn’t have the nerve to pay the price and take the debt.”
Other developers get rich by sitting on properties. That’s a safer way to make money—but it was not fast enough for Kushner. So he borrowed. He got lucky in that the market swung mostly upward then.
But when he failed, it was massive.
But when he failed, it was massive.
Documents show that the colossal amount Kushner paid for 666 Fifth—$1.8 billion, then the most ever paid for an office building in the U.S.—was over 97% debt. The Kushners (and their partners, the Gellerts) put down $50M, and Barclays and UBS provided the rest in a loan.
“Lenders [tend] not to like to lend to convicted felons,” explained one person involved with the loan for 666 Fifth.
Jared thus became the face of the deal—while sources told me it was clear Charlie was pulling the strings.
Jared thus became the face of the deal—while sources told me it was clear Charlie was pulling the strings.
And then the loan for 666 Fifth came due. Jared Kushner entered the administration with a financial albatross around his neck: the $1.4 billion debt that would be due in Feb 2019.
Jared practically had a “for sale” sign on him when he entered the White House. That’s why his security clearance matters: there were intelligence reports that there was “chatter” about how it was possible to “manipulate or take advantage of Kushner" because of the loan.
And then, in Spring 2018, Brookfield Partners—a Canadian company whose second-largest investor is the Qatari Investment Authority—swooped in and bailed Kushner Companies out.
In the deal for 666 Fifth, Brookfield Partners did a 99-year lease—ALL of it paid up front.
I have yet to find a single person who thinks that deal was made for rational economic reasons.
I have yet to find a single person who thinks that deal was made for rational economic reasons.
The deal was fishy for many reasons. I talked to @krassenstein about that in March and he had a great thread today about connecting the dots between Kushner/Trump/Deutsche Bank/Qatar Investment Authority:
We’ve been paying too much attention to Russia. What’s going on in the Middle East is the real story. We just need to follow the money. I did that in #KushnerInc and I’m going to stay on this story until the full truth is uncovered.
