White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his ownership stake in an online real estate investment company are at the center of a complaint a government watchdog filed with the Office of Government Ethics on Thursday.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Office of Government Ethics to determine if Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, failed to disclose his ownership interest in Cadre, a real-estate tech startup Kushner co-founded in 2013.
In its complaint, CREW alleges Kushner not only failed to disclose his interest in Cadre on his public financial disclosure statement, but must now divest from the company to eliminate any conflicts of interest in the technology and e-commerce sectors.
The Office of Government Ethics granted Kushner a certificate of divestiture, which lets federal employees defer capital gains taxes on property they sell to obey conflict of interest requirements.
But CREW said it’s likely the office had incomplete information when it granted Kushner the certificate, since his interest in Cadre likely wasn’t included in documents tied to his request for the certificate.
The group also says Kushner has yet to divest from Cadre, even though his stake in the tech startup presents a similar conflict of interest as his other interests in the technology and e-commerce sectors.
Kushner and the Office of Government Ethics agreed he needed to divest from those entities to avoid breaking conflict of interests laws.
“Kushner’s failure to disclose his ownership in Cadre is very troubling,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. “It appears to be one of his larger investments, not something he could easily overlook, and it is impossible to ensure that senior government officials are behaving ethically if they fail to disclose key assets.”
Bookbinder said the Office of Government Ethics should investigate Kushner’s ties to Cadre and determine if it’s necessary for the president’s son-in-law to fully divest from the company.
“As one of the most senior members of the administration, it is of the upmost importance that Kushner is following ethics rules and regulations and avoiding conflicts of interest,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Kushner hadn’t disclosed his stake in Cadre on a government financial disclosure-form. But Jamie Gorelick, Kushner’s lawyer, said in a statement that his ownership interest in Cadre was housed in another company Kushner owns, BFPS Ventures LLC, which is reported on the form.
The complaint against Kushner is one of many filed with the Office of Government Ethics against members of the Trump administration, and Trump himself.
