Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner earned $150M in joint outside income despite working full time for free at White House
Despite working for free as senior advisers for President Donald Trump, his daughter, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, managed to earn between $36.2 million and $157 million in combined outside income last year.
According to new financial disclosures submitted by the couple, the pair are doing quite well for themselves as they raked in millions in their bank account despite seemingly "working full time for free" at the White House for the Trump administration. The exact amount that they earned is impossible to know since they are each required only to report within a number of very large ranges, the Guardian reported.
It is even more complicated to find out where exactly they earned their millions from. But from whatever was listed in the disclosure, a large chunk of Kushner's money comes from Cadre, an online property broker, that he co-founded with his brother in 2014. Trump's son-in-law's stake in the company is worth between $25 million and $50 million. “Cadre is going to make us billionaires,” he announced at the time he found the company. Apparently it was reported previously that Cadre had received $90m in foreign funding, funneled through untraceable offshore companies, since 2017.
As to Kushner''s involvement in the company, it is unclear. However, it was reported that Kushner had decided to divest from the startup after talks of potential conflicts of interest. But again, last month there were reports that he had put his plans to divest on hold. Cadre, meanwhile, has promised not to seek out foreign investors.
Kushner also received between $1 million and $5 million from a company called Bergel 715 Associates last year. When the New York Times delved into the background of the company, it discovered that Rosemary Vrablic, a Deutsche Bank employee, and two colleagues bought a $1.5 million apartment from the company in 2013. It is important to note that Vrablic is a longtime personal banker of the president and Kushner, because of which the pair had received $190 million in loans from Deutsche Bank at the time. Since banks tend to restrict employees from personal dealings with clients due to potential conflicts of interest, Deutsche Bank has opened an internal review into the purchase of the property.
In her disclosure in 2018, Ivanka entered a $263,500 installment of her advance for her 2017 book 'Women Who Work.' However this year, the income from the book is listed as “none (or less than $201)”.
We previously reported that since 1995, according to the norms laid down by the Congress, the White House has reported the names, titles, and salaries of those working for the president annually. Both Ivanka and Jared came under fire in 2018, after a report said that they made at least $82 million in outside income while working as White House advisers.
Peter Mirijanian, a spokesperson for the couple's attorney Abbe Lowell, told the Washington Post that Kushner and Ivanka's net worth has not substantially changed during their time at the White House. "Since joining the administration, Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump have complied with the rules and restrictions as set out by the Office of Government Ethics," he said, Newsweek reported. "As to the current filing which OGE also reviews, their net worth remains largely the same, with changes reflecting more the way the form requires disclosure than any substantial difference in assets or liabilities."
