Money Grab/Give government contracts to family and donors
Kushner-Ivanka Albania resort draws protests, prosecutorial scrutiny
Affinity Partners, Jared Kushner’s investment firm, is developing a $1.4 billion resort on Albania’s Sazan Island and a $4.7 billion project at Zvernec, with Ivanka Trump involved. A Kushner-linked entity received expedited strategic-investor status weeks after the 2024 election. By June 2026 the projects faced protests and an anti-corruption inquiry.
What happened
Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, funded mostly by Gulf sovereign wealth, is planning two luxury resorts on Albania’s Adriatic coast. One is a $1.4 billion project on Sazan, an uninhabited former military island; the other is a $4.7 billion project on protected coastal land at Zvernec. Ivanka Trump is involved and has promoted the project. Kushner has said Richard Grenell, now Trump’s envoy for special missions, introduced him to Albania.
In December 2024, weeks after Trump’s re-election, Albania’s government gave the Sazan plan preliminary approval and “strategic investor” status. The status speeds approvals and exempts the project from tax for 10 years during construction. No final plan has been submitted and construction has not begun. In spring 2026 barbed-wire fencing went up at Zvernec, blocking beach access, and footage of private guards dragging a protester set off demonstrations.
On June 2 and 3, 2026, thousands marched in Tirana, a day after Albania’s anti-corruption prosecutor, SPAK, confirmed it was investigating the 2024 changes to protected-area law and land status behind the projects, and the funds used to buy the land. Prime Minister Edi Rama said the investment would not stop while he was in office. In August 2026 the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee extended a probe of Kushner’s business to Albania.
Who benefited
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, through Affinity Partners, hold fast-tracked, tax-exempt development rights worth about $6.1 billion in a country seeking closer U.S. ties. Affinity’s Gulf government investors supply the money that funds the firm.
Who wanted something
Albania’s government granted strategic-investor status to the president’s son-in-law weeks after the election, while pursuing closer ties with Washington. Its prime minister has publicly committed to seeing the project through.
Who lost out
Albanians are protesting the loss of protected coastline and beach access at Zvernec. The land-status process behind the projects is now under criminal investigation in Albania. No U.S. public money is in this record.
Why it matters
A foreign government gave the president’s son-in-law a faster, tax-free path to $6.1 billion in development rights in the weeks after the election, while seeking U.S. favor. The inquiry is Albania’s and its outcome is open. Congress has begun asking questions too.
Sources ForbesEuropean Western BalkansReutersbne IntelliNews