Miami Developer Linked to Kushner Albania Resort Debacle

A Miami Beach developer is facing international scrutiny as organized crime officials investigate disputed land deals tied to the assemblage for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s planned $1.4 billion luxury resort in Albania.

Artur Shehu, who is Albanian, owns multimillion-dollar waterfront homes on Miami Beach’s coveted Flamingo Drive and in North Bay Village and operates a Florida-based real estate business. Investigators believe Shehu directed one of Albania’s largest private land assemblages while living in South Florida, the Miami New Times reported.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project said Shehu purchased property from villagers who argued the land had long belonged to their family and was improperly transferred to private owners before being sold for development, the outlet said. Acquisitions were often made through complex legal agreements, which critics claim took advantage of Albania’s property system muddied by the country’s communist past, when private land ownership was abolished.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are betting on that land for their coastal resort, which is one of the Trump family’s largest international business ventures since the husband and wife left the White House after President Trump’s first term, the outlet said.

Kushner and Ivanka Trump have not been accused of any wrongdoing, but the project and the associated assemblage has sparked protests across Albania, with demonstrators accusing the government of developer favoritism and raising concerns about the resort’s environmental impact.

Shehu has denied any illegal activity, saying his land acquisitions complied with Albanian law.

It’s not the first time the developer has been accused of being involved in organized crime. Italian authorities previously investigated him for alleged drug trafficking and connections to the Italian mafia but never charged him due to insufficient evidence.

Shehu has also been accused of having ties to organized crime in his home country, which he left in 1999 after a deadly gunfight in his bar in Vlora, according to the OCCRP. Court records show the U.S. granted him asylum in 2001.

—Grace McClung