Day: February 28, 2024

After Jared Kushner left the White House he launched an investment advisory firm Affinity Partners (registered as A Fin Management) which has over $3 billion under management. In 2022 the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) invested over $2 billion and in 2023 the United Arab Emirates invested over $200 million. Kushner’s firm is tasked with investing these funds on behalf of its clients and receives millions of dollars in management fees each year.

While the news of Kushner’s multi-billion dollar investment deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE grabbed the headlines, Kushner was also busy launching a small nonprofit dedicated to continuing the work he did in the White House on a peace plan for the Middle East and implementing the Abraham Accords.

New research provides financial and staff details on the nonprofit and reveals that two of the directors are also executives of Kushner’s for-profit Affinity Partners — showing the close ties between his for profit and nonprofit endeavors.

There are reports on three investment deals made by Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners in 2022 and 2023. For the first two deals Affinity Partners is described as a lead investor, along with others, so the total amount of the Affinity investment is not known.

Mosaic (California, USA) – agreement for $200 million investment: The first big investment deal for Jared Kushner’s Affinity partners, reported by Axios, was an agreement to lead the investment in a California-based fintech company called Mosaic that was raising more than $200 million.

EGYM (Munich, Germany) – led $225 million investment: An article in TechCrunch last year reported that Affinity Partners led the investment of $225 million in a Munich-based smart fitness startup EGYM which plans to do an initial public offering.

Shlomo Group Auto and Credit Operations (Israel) – $110 million: According to Calcalist Affinity Partners invested $110 million to acquire 15% of Shlomo Group’s auto and credit operations and the money “is intended to expand the Group’s automotive and credit operations in Israel to countries in the Middle East and North Africa.” They note some additional details of the transaction, including that Shlomo is granting Affinity a loan of almost $50 million to finance the $110 million deal:

The parties have agreed that, at present, the new company will only hold shares related to Shlomo Group’s automotive division, including the vehicle leasing, rental and sale operations, where the fund will have an additional period of 12 months after transaction closing to turn to the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority to apply for a license to hold over 10% of Credit Path, a private company engaged in non-bank credit.

Under the agreement, Shlomo Group will grant Affinity Fund a loan of $46.75 million to finance the investment transaction.

Axios reported that Kushner had founded the nonprofit Abraham Accords Institute for Peace “to work on deepening the normalization agreements he helped strike between Israel and Arab countries.”

The 2022 990 tax filing for the Abraham Accords Peace Institute describes their mission:

To strengthen and solidify the new bonds between Israel and Arab countries created through the Abraham Accords so that the long-standing conflict in the region will diminish, security will be enhanced, and new opportunities and relationships benefitting the peoples of the region will be created. The institute will further work to promote a future of peace, tolerance and opportunity in the Middle East and around the world.

New research shows that the 2022 990 tax filing for the Abraham Accords Peace Institute lists three directors — and of these, two directors are also executives at Affinity Partners. This is standard and fully legal, but it is notable because it shows how inter-connected and aligned Kushner’s nonprofit is with his multi-billion dollar investment business funded by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The Abraham Accords Peace Institute’s corporate filing shows the company was incorporated in 2021 in Florida, and along with the 990 lists three officers:

• Robert Greenway – President/Executive Director
• Cassidy Luna – Treasurer/Director
• Charlton Boyd – Secretary/Director

The nonprofit president Robert Greenway is also the Director of the Center for National Defense at the Heritage Foundation and was formerly White House Deputy Assistant to then President Trump and served on the National Security Council.

The nonprofit treasurer and director Cassidy Luna is listed as the current treasurer (and former chairman) of Kushner’s A Fin Management (aka Affinity Partners). She is married to former Trump aide Nick Luna, who set up a firm CIC Ventures which licensed Trump NFT images, and who was involved in packing up White House documents when Trump left office.

The third nonprofit director and secretary Charlton Boyd was formerly an assistant to Kushner in the White House. Boyd is listed as a director of Affinity Partners on his LinkedIn page and was described by Politico as director of executive operations at Affinity Partners.

The website lists three staff members, who are not included in the 990 or the Florida corporate filing:

• Hannah Zakaria, Director of Operations, Washington, D.C.
• Asher Fredman, Director for Israel
• David Aaronson, Deputy Director for Israel

Hannah Zakaria worked as a White House intern and receptionist in 2018-2019 and then as Associate Director of Operations and Communications in the White House from 2019-2021.

David Aaronson had been a Senior Advisor to Israel’s Minister of Regional Cooperation Ofir Akunis during the signing of the Abraham Accords.

Asher Fredman founded the Israeli-Emirati Forum and was a Founding Member of the UAE-Israel Business Council. The President and co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council is Dorian Barak, whom I wrote about here, and who is a close associate of Erik Prince and a small investor in his latest Unplugged secure phone business (there is no known connection from Prince to the nonprofit).

The website lists members of the Honorary Advisory Council:

• Ambassador Abdullah Al Khalifa, Bahrain to US
• Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba – UAE to US
• Ambassador Michael Herzog – Israel to US
• HH Princess Lalla Joumala – Morocco Ambassador to US
• Former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz – former Chancellor of Austria
• Senator Joe Lieberman – Sr Counsel Kasowitz, Benson, Torres LLP
• Haim Saban – Chairman and CEO of Saban Capital Group

Many members of the advisory council including Democratic donor Haim Saban and UAE ambassador Al Otaiba had worked closely with Kushner on the Abraham Accords and are described in more detail in this recent Washington Post story.

Former chancellor Sebastian Kurz who has been dubbed “Austria’s mini-Trump,” recently helped co-found a new company called Dream Security, created by Shalev Hulio, the former CEO of notorious Pegasus spyware firm NSO Group, which employs over a dozen former NSO staffers.

The 2022 990 tax filing for the Abraham Accords Peace Institute shows that in 2022 they had $1.22 million in revenue and $809,000 in expenses.

The ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer shows a summary of their financials for 2021 and 2022. While they are small, they are growing in size.

Source: ProPublica

The filing lists two contractors that were paid over $100,000.

SBR Enterprises LLC, run by Susan Ralston was paid $120,000 for consultation and advisory services.

AAF Fredman Stratey Grp Ltd was paid $135,000 for consultation and advisory services. The firm is run by Asher Fredman who is listed as Director for Israel on the website.