Jared Kushner’s sister on Thursday canceled her upcoming presentation to potential Chinese investors after intense criticism that she had used her brother’s White House role to benefit the family’s real estate company.
“No one from Kushner Companies will be in China this weekend,” Risa Heller, a company spokeswoman, told The Washington Post on Thursday.
Nicole Kushner Meyer was scheduled to give a presentation to investors on Saturday in Shenzhen, according to the Post.
The White House has said that Kushner, who ran the family company before his father-in-law became president, has divested himself from Kushner Companies and is not involved in his sister’s presentations in China.
However, Meyer came under fire last week when she mentioned her brother’s name while promoting a Kushner Companies development project in New Jersey. She was courting Chinese investors with a much-criticized federal EB-5 visa program, according to the Associated Press. The program offers permanent U.S. Residency to investors who give enough money to projects that create American jobs.
She later apologized for bringing up her brother’s name, but the incident is only the latest in a string of events that have raised concerns about conflicts of interest.
Before Kushner Companies said it had pulled out of this weekend’s presentation, Sen. Chuck Grassley on Thursday asked Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to implement significant changes to the EB-5 visa program, according to the Post. The proposed changes would address long-standing criticism of the program and potentially hamper the Kushner family’s fundraising efforts for their New Jersey project.
