48.7 F
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Jared Kushner Divests Stake in Cadre, Company Turns New Leaf

Related Articles

-Advertisement-

Must read

By Hellen Zaboulani

Jared Kushner has divested his stake in Cadre, the real estate crowdfunding platform. The move comes in a final attempt to quiet incessant scrutiny over his potential conflicts of interest with the real estate investment startup.

As reported by Bloomberg News, Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump and a senior White House advisor, sold his shares to a trust which then sold them back to the firm. His stake in the company was most recently priced between $25 million and $50 million, as per federal disclosures. Kushner and his brother Josh, along with Ryan Williams from Goldman Sachs had co-founded the technology-driven real estate firm in 2014, as a platform for “democratizing” real investment. Josh, who heads venture capital firm Thrive Capital, still has his stake in Cadre through the company.

Kushner had previously refused to divest himself of his stake in the company, when SoftBank had expressed interest as a potential investor. The 39-year-old, who is married to Ivanka Trump, had already stepped down from the company’s board, upon entering the White House in 2016. His ties to federal policy, however, continued to give birth to problems for the company, which has now led him to divest himself from the company. “When Cadre, with which Mr. Kushner has not been involved for over 3 years, decided to pursue opportunities that could unknowingly to Mr. Kushner become future conflicts, he took the guidance of White House Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics and put in place a blind divestment process,” said Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Kushner. “This is the latest example of how seriously he takes this responsibility.”

Kushner has been working in creating the Opportunity Zones program, a program that offers federal tax incentives to encourage development in low-income neighborhoods. His involvement was later criticized when Cadre subsequently purchased properties that would likely benefit from the incentive program. His ownership stake in the company also led to controversy last year, when the Real Deal reported that Cadre had attained $90 million in financial backing from an unidentified foreign investor.

Cadre has taken the critiques to heart and has started making changes. In January, Cadre told The Real Deal that it plans to cut down on investments in Opportunity Zones. At the end of January, Cadre’s CEO, Ryan Williams also announced the appointment of a new president, Allen Smith. Smith is a well-known real estate executive and had served for five-years as CEO of Four Seasons hotels. Before that, Smith had headed Prudential Real Estate Investors’ growth. “Allen brings enormous creativity and a proven track record of success,” said Williams. “Having Allen on board will provide me with even more bandwidth to focus on strategy, overall business development, and closing impactful partnerships that we will develop in 2020 and beyond. This is really an example of one-plus-one-equals-three.”

balance of natureDonate

Latest article

- Advertisement -