On 2 October, Jared Kushner announced on X that after a decade of ignoring "false and misleading stories" he would start putting "the facts and supporting information out publicly."
One of his first targets is Dexter Filkins's long New Yorker profile, Jared Kushner's Dollar Diplomacy, published in September. His reply is organised as a series of "Claim" and "Reality" entries; section nine is about Albania.
It is the most detailed account Kushner has given personally of his Albanian venture. The text names partners and a price for the first time. It addresses some of the allegations raised in Albania but not others, including the state decisions that made the project possible.
1. "Bought, not given": what the claim covers
The New Yorker's claim, as Kushner quotes it, is that development rights were awarded without public notice or competitive bidding, and that an amendment unlocking protected land was rushed through parliament.
Kushner's response addresses a narrower point: that the Zvërnec land was bought from a private party, not handed over by the government. On Zvërnec, that is broadly accurate. But the project has two parts, and the response does not mention the second.
Sazan is state property. On 30 December 2024, Albania's Strategic Investment Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Edi Rama, granted strategic investor status to Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC for a €1.4 billion resort on 45 hectares of the island. That status is granted by a committee Rama chairs, not through competitive bidding.
Strategic status is more than a faster permit queue. Under Albania's Strategic Investments Law, it gives the investor access to state-owned land and support through auxiliary infrastructure financed by the government. In practice, the public budget pays to bring roads, water, electricity and sewerage to the site.
For an island with no utilities and a resort complex of this size, that bill could run into the billions, met from the public budget.
The point about a private purchase therefore applies to Zvërnec, not to Sazan, where the state is negotiating over public land.
2. From €5.5 million to €122 million in five months
Kushner presents the €230 million as proof of good faith: the partners paid one of the highest prices in the region. The transaction records raise questions about that price.
The seller was Artur Shehu, a Miami-based businessman whose family claims much of the Zvërnec coast. He is wanted on an Albanian arrest warrant on suspicion of laundering drug money and forging land titles, which he denies.
The buyer was represented by Redi Struga, a local intermediary who first bought land from Shehu in 2021 and now administers the developers' land company, Albania Land Development, owned by the Al-Khayyat brothers. Shteg, OCCRP's Albanian affiliate, traces the price of Shehu's land, based on the SPAK case file:
Over four years, the price of comparable tracts from the same seller more than doubled, as the state built the airport, opened protected areas to five-star resorts and granted strategic status.
The jump that followed has no such explanation. In November 2025, Albania Land Development signed a promissory contract to buy 102.9 hectares from Shehu for €5.5 million. In April 2026 it completed the same purchase for €122 million: same land, same seller, same buyer.
As far as the public record shows, nothing changed in those five months. Nor were the two sides strangers: the SPAK documents seen by Shteg describe the dealings between Shehu and Struga over the years as coordinated, reflecting links and shared interests.
The public records do not explain why a buyer that had already secured the land at €5.5 million would pay €122 million for it. Sharp, unexplained price increases are among the patterns money-laundering investigators examine. According to AFP, that is what investigators are doing: looking at the price jump for possible money laundering or influence peddling.
SPAK has frozen about €110 million from the sale in a notary's account. Villagers say a 2013 court ruling gave them the land, and according to the Wall Street Journal, residents had tried to warn Kushner that it had been taken from its owners.
Kushner says title was reviewed by counsel. The response does not say whether that review flagged the price increase or the seller's legal history. Shehu’s legal representtive had been under house arrest until mid-2025 in a case over alleged forgery of the documents that gave his family coastal land, a matter of court record before the sale closed.
The allegations were not new. In March 2021, an OCCRP investigation, published with the Miami Herald, reported that Shehu was accused of taking land around Vlora, including Zvërnec plots claimed by local villagers, and that his associate had been convicted in 2018 of forging land documents on the family's behalf. Shehu had not been charged. Reuters found no indication that the investors were aware of suspicions about him when they bought.
No one has accused Kushner or his partners of wrongdoing, and SPAK has said its probe does not concern any company associated with Kushner. The developers have not publicly explained the increase. Kushner's statement that the price was "among the highest prices paid in the region" does not address it.
3. "We" and the minority partner
Kushner's response uses two different framings. On one hand, it is "our partnership", "we purchased", "we are investing". On the other, Kushner says he is "a minority partner" with no day-to-day involvement, focused mainly on vision and design.
This is consistent with what Affinity Partners' PR agency told journalists in June: Affinity is neither an investor nor the developer, and the partners invest in a personal capacity.
The response does not say who owns the developer. From its creation in August 2024 until May 2026, the Albanian company holding the Zvërnec development permit was owned through a chain of Dutch shell companies, its beneficial owners not publicly identified.
It is now controlled by Sazan Real Estate Development, the Qatar-registered company that represents the investors, but a minority stake is held by two companies registered in Luxembourg and Delaware whose owners do not appear in any public record. Dutch MPs have filed parliamentary questions about these structures.
The response introduces Ramez and Moutaz Alkhayyat at some length, describing how they fled Syria and rebuilt their business in Qatar, but does not say whether they have invested or how much. Public records show they control the company that bought the Zvërnec land. More broadly, Kushner puts a value on the project, about €4 billion, but does not say who is providing that capital or in what proportions.
The role of Asher Abehsera is also unclear. Kushner describes him as a partner and the project's CEO, and he heads Sazan Real Estate Development.
The response does not say whether Abehsera has an equity stake or only a management role, or why a New York developer leads a Qatar-registered company that serves as the vehicle for an investment in Albania. Disclosing the ownership structure would answer these questions.
Kushner has never disclosed how much he has invested. Neither the size of his share nor the identity of every beneficial owner has been made public.
4. Kastrati Group's role
The response states that the Kastrati family "originally brought us the land opportunity."
This confirms what the Wall Street Journal reported, that Asher Abehsera worked with the Kastrati family to assemble the Zvërnec land, and what the New York Times reported in March 2024, that the company would play a role in Kushner's plans.
It does not say how or when the Kastratis brought the land to the partners, or whether they already held any of it. Shteg's documents show people acting for the company buying up Zvërnec land from the end of 2021, the same year Kushner says his interest began. The response also does not state what share Kastrati Group holds in the project, or whether that share appears in any public register.
5. Chronology: key decisions came after the 2024 election
Kushner argues that the claim the project was meant to curry favour with Trump "gets the chronology backwards", since his interest began in summer 2021, when he was a private citizen and long before Trump announced his 2024 campaign.
On the airport, the record supports him. The Vlora airport concession was signed in April 2021 and construction began that November, so it was not approved at his request. He notes that it was "one of the factors that attracted me"; the investors' involvement followed these public decisions.
The project's formal approvals came later. Kushner had left the White House six months before that summer, and Affinity Partners had been raising money from Gulf sovereign wealth funds.
Groundwork followed: the protected-areas amendment in February 2024 and Kushner's sketches a month later.
But Rama's government did not grant strategic investor status until after Trump won the November 2024 election. The main steps followed:
— 30 December 2024: Strategic investor status for Sazan, three weeks before Trump's inauguration.
— May–November 2025: Albania Land Development is set up and signs for Shehu's land at €5.5 million.
— February 2026: Kushner becomes a US Special Envoy.
— April–May 2026: The Zvërnec purchase closes at €122 million; fences and bulldozers arrive on the site.
Rama has described criticism of the project as "anti-Trump outrage". In August, Democrats on the US House Judiciary Committee opened an inquiry into the project. The timeline leaves open the conflict-of-interest questions raised by critics.
6. What the rebuttal does not say
The response does not address the second half of the New Yorker's claim, that the amendment unlocking protected land was rushed through parliament. That amendment made five-star development in protected areas possible.
On 17 June, the European Parliament called on Tirana to repeal the 2024 amendments and impose a moratorium on construction in protected areas.
Kushner says the partnership has "engaged extensively with the local community in Vlore." Other accounts differ. Aleksandër Trajçe, head of the environmental organisation PPNEA, said there had been no public consultation and no publication of permit documents. Zvërnec's village head, Kostaq Konomi, told BIRN that residents were excluded from information and decisions.
The community's first encounter with the project, in May 2026, was barbed wire and private security guards. A video of a protester being dragged by guards went viral, and Greece's foreign ministry expressed concern after one of its citizens was injured.
Kushner says the project "will have to go through all relevant Albanian regulatory and environmental processes." But the Zvërnec developer already holds development permits and has submitted a construction permit application.
Several decisions have therefore already been taken, with limited public disclosure.
Conclusion: what Albanians still do not know
Kushner ends by saying that Albania will decide whether the project proceeds. For that decision to be an informed one, three basic questions need answers.
1. What exactly will be built? No final plan has been made public. Early planning documents reviewed by CBS News mention 800 guest rooms and suites, luxury villas, a golf course, a casino, a water park and apartments. The initial plans for Zvërnec alone envisaged roughly 10,000 accommodation units.
The size and content of the project, on Sazan and in Zvërnec, remain unclear.
2. Who will pay for it? Kushner puts the investment at about €4 billion, but neither he nor his partners have said who is providing that capital or in what shares, and part of the developer's ownership remains hidden behind companies in Luxembourg and Delaware.
Nor has the government published what the state would contribute: the public land on Sazan and the publicly funded roads, water, electricity and sewerage that come with strategic status.
3. What will it do to the environment? The site lies in and beside the Vjosa-Narta protected landscape and the Karaburun-Sazan marine park, home to flamingos, sea turtles and migratory birds. The developers are preparing an environmental impact statement, but none has been published.
These answers matter because they should come before approval, not after.
Under Albanian law and the EU rules Albania is adopting, an environmental impact assessment is open to public participation. Kushner says the project will go through every required process. So far, residents and environmental groups say they have not been consulted, although development permits have already been issued.
The open question is whether the people of Zvërnec and Vlora will be shown the plans and heard before the project is approved, or only after.
Kushner's response establishes that the Zvërnec land was purchased.
Whether Albania decides, as he says it will, depends on whether its citizens are told what is being built, who is paying and what it will cost the environment, before the decision is made.
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