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A rendering of the resort Kushner is planning in Albania.<\/span>Studio Genesis<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This story was\u00a0originally published<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<\/em>Popular Information<\/a>, the author\u2019s substack publication. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Jared Kushner\u2019s efforts<\/span> to negotiate an end to the Iran War are not going well. But he is only moonlighting as one of the Trump administration\u2019s top diplomats. Kushner is also having problems at his day job as the founder of Affinity Partners, a private equity fund bankrolled by Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments.<\/p>\n Along with his wife Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Trump, Kushner is developing a multibillion-dollar resort on Sazan Island in Albania and nearby coastline. In an\u00a0interview<\/a>\u00a0with the David Senra podcast published Sunday, Ivanka Trump described the project dreamily:<\/p>\n It\u2019s an unbelievable, beautiful, 1,400-hectare private island in the middle of the Mediterranean. We were on a friend\u2019s boat and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that\u2019s how we found it. We swam to the island, we went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated, and it stayed with us ever since. And over the course of many years, we developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it, but with a lot of restraint and care because the land is so beautiful that, really, the architecture has to be fully integrated into it, almost rise from it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n She also said the project is \u201cthe culmination of all of my experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live, how I think people increasingly want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n But the reality of the massive project, which includes 10,000 hotel rooms and is located in one of Europe\u2019s most environmentally sensitive areas<\/a>, is a lot messier. In 2024, the Albanian government\u00a0changed the law<\/a>\u00a0to allow the area, which was previously part of a protected national park, to be developed. After Trump\u2019s election in November 2024, the Albanian government granted Atlantic Incubation Partners, an LLC linked to Kushner, \u201cstrategic investor<\/a>\u201c status, clearing the way for permits.<\/p>\n Kushner\u2019s LLC was\u00a0granted<\/a>\u00a0that status \u201cjust weeks before the new US president\u2019s inauguration, even without a business plan or feasibility study for the construction of a luxury resort on an uninhabited island once used by the army for shooting practice.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Albania\u2019s Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, known as SPAK, confirmed it was\u00a0investigating Kushner\u2019s project<\/a>. The investigation will probe the\u00a0changes to the land\u2019s protected status<\/a>\u00a0and how Kushner-controlled entities obtained rights.<\/p>\n An\u00a0investigative report<\/a>\u00a0by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network found that the project involved a \u201cnetwork of shady individuals and companies<\/a>\u201c including \u201ca businessman accused of links to the Italian mafia, a former judge who resigned due to the vetting process, the daughter of a lawyer accused of forgery, the company of a murdered businessman and individuals linked to one of Albania\u2019s biggest oligarchs, Shefqet Kastrati.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, 41 environmental organizations from 28 countries\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and called for \u201cthe immediate suspension of any decisions advancing the project.\u201d The groups said the resort posed \u201cserious risks to the biodiversity and critical habitats of the area,\u201d including \u201ccrucial habitats for some of the world\u2019s most endangered marine species.\u201d<\/p>\n Rama, however, has\u00a0continued to defend the project<\/a>. \u201cThere is not a single chance it will be stopped for as long as I am here,\u201d Rama said at a press conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n On Senra\u2019s podcast, <\/span>Ivanka Trump said she was \u201cjust there [in Albania] walking the lands\u201d to \u201csort of be with it and experience it alongside some of the greatest living architects of our time.\u201d She did not mention that the property has been subject to mass protests.<\/p>\n On\u00a0April 29<\/a>, government officials\u00a0allowed<\/a>\u00a0barbed wire fencing to be constructed around the coastal portions of the resort property. This cut off miles of beach from the public. Heavy machinery was brought in to construct access roads.<\/p>\n The actions prompted regular protests by Albanians objecting to handing Kushner a public asset to develop into an ultra-luxury resort. Video captured private security guards dragging a protester across the ground.<\/p>\n\n