Jared Kushner
The probe by the Maryland attorney general comes after reports by ProPublica, The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun about the firm’s aggressive treatment of tenants.
The office of the Maryland attorney general is investigating the
management practices at the many large apartment complexes in the state
that are owned and overseen by Kushner Companies, the family company of
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner.
A spokesman for Kushner Companies confirmed that the office of
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat elected in 2014, has
been in contact with the New York-based company. “We have been working
with the Maryland Attorney General’s Office to provide information in
response to its request,” the company said in a statement issued by the
spokesman. The statement concluded: “We are in compliance with all state
and local laws.”
A spokeswoman for the attorney general, Christine Tobar, declined to
discuss the matter. “We don’t confirm or deny investigations,” she said.
The suit follows a May 23 article jointly published by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine that
detailed the Kushner Companies’ highly litigious dealings with the
people who rent apartments in the 15 complexes it owns in the Baltimore
area. The company, which shares ownership in some of the complexes with
other partners but runs them all through its Westminster Management
subsidiary, has brought hundreds of cases against current and former
tenants in local courts.
Many of the cases involved former tenants who had moved out of the
complexes several years before Kushner Companies bought them. The firm’s
purchases began with the acquisition of 5,500 units in the Baltimore
area as part of a $371 million deal in 2012, with several thousand more
units added in the next few years. Some of the cases involved tenants
who possessed clear evidence that they did not owe the money the company
claimed, yet were pursued anyway for several years, with late fees and
court fees piling on top of the original claims.
Click here for the full article.
Source: ProPublica
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