Jared Kushner's PE firm secured $2 billion from Saudi Arabia despite objections he was too inexperienced to manage the money, report says
Kushner's PE firm secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the NYT reported.
The PIF was reticent to invest due to the firm's inexperience, but was overruled, the report said.
Kushner and MBS, the chairman of the PIF, are close friends.
Jared Kushner secured a $2 billion investment for his private equity firm from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund last summer, The New York Times reported.
Kushner set up Affinity Partners in July following his departure from the White House, where he served as a senior advisor to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump.
Reports have since detailed how Kushner has traveled the Middle East trying to drum up investment, with mixed success.
Though said to have been rebuffed by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Kushner secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund in July, The Times reported.
However, citing an internal document dated June 30, The Times reported that an internal PIF panel tasked with assessing the feasibility of investment was reluctant to support Kushner's fund, citing his lack of experience.
The group also flagged that its background check found that Affinity Partners was "unsatisfactory in all aspects" and that there were "public relations risks" given Kushner was a former senior adviser to Trump, The Times said.
But the panel was overruled by the board of the PIF, The Times reported. The chairman of the board is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country's de facto leader who has formed a close bond with Kushner since 2017.
The PIF and Kushner Companies, the Kushner family firm, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Kushner and Crown Prince Mohammed are on a first-name basis, texting often and informally when Kushner was in the White House, The Times previously reported. In 2017, Crown Prince Mohammed gifted Kushner two swords and a dagger worth $48,000, The Times said.
In turn, Kushner defended Crown Prince Mohammed in 2018 following the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
It appears that Crown Prince Mohammed and Kushner remained close after Trump's presidency, with Bloomberg reporting that Kushner met the crown prince in Saudi Arabia during a tour of the Middle East earlier in 2022.
In filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 31, Affinity Partners said it had a total of $2.5 billion under management, almost all of which appears to comprise the Saudi investment, according to The Times.
Kushner's close links with Crown Prince Mohammed and the existence of the investment in Affinity Partners are likely to raise ethical questions should Kushner return to the White House with Trump, should the latter run for and win the 2024 election. Trump has not said whether he is running for office again.
However, NBC News reported that Kushner recently volunteered to give six hours of testimony to the House committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol, and Trump's role in it. According to a source who spoke with NBC News, Kushner was being cooperative and friendly.
A source close to Kushner previously told Axios there is no guarantee that Kushner will follow Trump into a 2024 run.
"He can't live his life just waiting on what [Trump] may or may not do," the person said.
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