Jared Kushner’s Albanian Land Deal Tied to Suspected Gangster and Corruption

In 2021, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump visited the rocky Albanian island of Sazam, later deciding to purchase it along with marshland in Zvërnec that hosts endangered birds. Kushner’s investment vehicle, Affinity Partners, teamed with the family of Qatari billionaire Moutaz Khayyat to buy the land for a planned luxury-hotel complex. The deal quickly attracted suspicion because the seller, Artur Shehu, is labeled a suspected gangster who escaped to Miami after a bar gunfight, and the title relied on a falsified Ottoman-era document that replaced the true owner with Shehu’s name.

Albanian prosecutors arrested Shehu on charges akin to U.S. RICO statutes, alleging his role in a major drug network that launders money through real estate and cryptocurrency. Local residents of Zvërnec have contested the sale, asserting the property is theirs and pointing to a 2007 court finding of document fraud. The controversy underscores how foreign investors, organized crime and weak governance can converge in post-communist Albania’s development projects.