Kushner Cos. may be dealing with yet another legal headache, courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Justice Department.
The two federal agencies have each issued subpoenas to investors in Kushner projects in New York and New Jersey dating back to 2010, Bloomberg reports. The investigation has reportedly been ongoing for a year, predating Robert Mueller's appointment as special counsel charged with investigating connections between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Charles Harder, an attorney representing the company formerly led by Jared Kushner, denied that the company is under any sort of tax investigation and asserted that Kushner Cos. has not been contacted by the IRS or the Justice Department Tax Division.
"If there is an investigation about others’ taxes, it has nothing to do with Kushner Cos. or its businesses,” Harder told Bloomberg in a statement.
Bloomberg's sources would not confirm whether the investigations were connected to Kushner. If there is a connection, it would be added to the hefty pile of concerns for the company, not all of them legal.
Kushner's purchase of the New York Times building from Russian billionaire Lev Leviev has been investigated, partially due to a $285M loan Deutsche Bank provided Kushner in the deal. Deutsche Bank has previously been investigated for money laundering through its Russian connections.
Federal investigators subpoenaed Kushner over its use of EB-5 investments for its One Journal Square project in Jersey City after Nicole Kushner Meyer advertised her family's White House connections to entice Chinese investors to the project.
Kushner Cos. is currently subject to multiple lawsuits alleging that the company improperly raised rents in Brooklyn apartments that were under stabilization protections.
Maryland's attorney general is investigating claims that Kushner affiliates illegally harassed and sued tenants over unpaid rent while failing to properly maintain its apartments.
The company has abandoned its ambitious plans to redevelop its most expensive property, 666 Fifth Ave., and has not yet found a way to restructure or pay off $1.2B in debt on the building that matures February 2019.
Jared Kushner himself is under investigation for improper connections with Russia, in his association with the Trump campaign, his family's company and the potential intersection of the two.
Though family patriarch Charles Kushner has publicly stated his confidence that his company and son will be cleared of all wrongdoing, the list of allegations to fight is long, and potentially growing longer.
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