Trump-Kushner Hotel Project in Serbia Hits a Snag: Alleged Forgery
Serbian authorities say an official admitted to forging a document allowing a protected site in Belgrade to be demolished and replaced with a Trump hotel.
By Eric Lipton and Pavle Kosic
Eric Lipton reported from Washington, and Pavle Kosic reported from Belgrade, Serbia
The Trump family’s $500 million luxury hotel project in Serbia, slated to be built on the site of a bombed-out Defense Ministry building, has run into an embarrassing complication. A key document the Serbian government has relied on to deliver this deal was forged, officials there said this week.
Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, and his business partners plan to build a luxury residential and commercial complex on the site of the long-vacant compound that is slated to include a Trump International Hotel, the first in Europe.
The leader of the Serbian agency charged with protecting cultural monuments admitted to the authorities that he had forged a government document allowing the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense headquarters in Belgrade to be demolished and replaced with the Trump hotel.
The project won tentative approval from the Serbian government last year, even before the government officially moved to revoke the protected historic status of the former Defense Ministry complex, which was heavily damaged during a 1999 bombing campaign by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Serbian government officials say that the agency’s leader, Goran Vasic, fabricated an expert opinion to justify the government’s decision to strip the site of its cultural heritage status.
“Vasic forged a proposal for a decision to revoke the status of cultural property,” the Office of the Prosecutor for Organized Crime said in a statement. “Goran Vasic caused damage to the cultural heritage of the Republic of Serbia.”
The forged document served as the legal basis for lifting protection from the complex. Mr. Vasic, who has served as the acting director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments since June, now faces charges of abuse of office and forgery of official documents, officials in Belgrade said this week.
Affinity Partners, Mr. Kushner’s company, said in a statement that it had played no role in the review of the site’s cultural status. Work at the site has not started and the fate of the project is now less clear, the company said.
“Today we learned from media reports that a former Serbian government official with no connection to our firm allegedly falsified documents related to the landmark designation of the Belgrade Square project,” the statement said. “We will review this matter and determine next steps.”
In Serbia, the prospect that the historic complex would be demolished and replaced with a luxury hotel benefiting the American president has spurred outrage.