Kushner execs pull out of EB-5 roadshow amid ethics fracas

Amid backlash over its pitch to Chinese EB-5 investors, Kushner Companies [TRDataCustom] executives won’t take part in a roadshow to promote the company’s One Journal Square project this weekend.

Executives from the company, including Nicole Kushner Meyer — whose comments set off a firestorm and raised conflict-of-interest questions — will not take part in sales pitches to investors, reported the Washington Post.

They were expected to appear in the southern cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou to promote the Jersey City development, according to ads for the events. Kushner Companies is seeking $150 million from EB-5 investors for One Journal Square, a 1,467-apartment luxury tower in Jersey City with a projected cost upwards of $1 billion.

“No one from Kushner Companies will be in China this weekend,” spokesperson Risa Heller said in a statement to the New York Times.

The roadshow, which already made stops in Beijing and Shanghai, is continuing without representatives from Kushner Companies, according to Qiaowai, a Chinese immigration agency that’s working with the developer. The roadshow was advertised as a five-city tour ending in Wuhan in central China.

Meyer grabbed headlines last week when she said One Journal Square “means a lot to me and my entire family.” She also mentioned her brother by name, raising further conflict-of-interest questions.

Chinese state-run media also published reports questioning whether Kushner Companies was benefitting from its White House connection. “Caution urged on Kushner project,” read one headline, in the state-sponsored Global Times newspaper.

Kushner Companies later apologized and said Meyer’s invocation of Jared wasn’t meant to lure investors. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Jared is complying with ethics rules and had “nothing to do” with Kushner Companies’ work in China. [WaPo] — E.B. Solomont