Kushner bought peninsula from Albanian gangster
Jared Kushner's luxury dream was to put Albania on the tourist map.
Now the project is being shaken by suspected crimes and mass protests.
- Give me back my land, says village leader Kostaq Konomi to the Wall Street Journal.
Jared Kushner's planned luxury project in Albania has found itself in the middle of a growing scandal over suspected land theft, drug trafficking and money laundering. Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, and his partners are planning a tourism venture worth around five billion dollars on the Zvernec peninsula and the island of Sazan on the Albanian coast.
When residents of the small peninsula of Zvernec learned that businessman Jared Kushner wanted to buy the land to build a luxury resort, they wrote him a letter of protest, reports the Wall Street Journal. The land has been the subject of legal disputes since the early 2000s.
Suspected drug smuggler
Artur Shehu, the Albanian businessman and landowner from whom Kushner and his partners bought the land, received over 1.1 billion kronor for the Mediterranean peninsula.
Two months after the purchase, Albanian prosecutors requested the arrest of Artur Shehu. He is now wanted on suspicion of having played a leading role in an international cocaine network and for money laundering.
According to the suspicions, the money was laundered through stolen property, including the peninsula that Kushner has now purchased.
Among the methods that Artur Shehu has used, according to prosecutors, are forged land deeds from the time of the Ottoman Empire.
Protests in Tirana
Since the end of April, the peninsula has been surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Outside, locals have tried to hold protests – and have been stopped by hired security guards.
A video of a security guard beating a local resident and dragging him across the beach went viral. The incident contributed to widespread protests in Tirana, where criticism has grown into a broader protest against corruption and exploitation of Albania's coast – called the "Flamingo Revolution".
The residents of Zvërnec are afraid of what is about to happen.
- The only thing I want now is for them to give me my land back, village leader Kostaq Konomi told the Wall Street Journal.
Jared Kushner and his partners are not suspected of any crime.
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