A grand jury indicted David Kushner, a real estate investor in New Jersey, for three counts of tax evasion.
Between 2014 and 2016, Kushner’s business grossly underreported its taxable income and failed to pay more than $670,000 in taxes, the indictment alleges. His attorney says he owes nothing and predicted the IRS would come around to that view.
The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division found that in 2014, Kushner allegedly failed to report $634,444 in taxable income. In 2015, he allegedly reported $0 income, instead of the $777,789 the IRS said he earned. In 2016, he did not report $377,778 in income, the indictment reads.
Kushner allegedly deposited payments and income from the businesses and elsewhere into four bank accounts, then used a majority of those funds for personal expenses.
Each count of tax evasion could bring up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Kushner, who is not affiliated with Kushner Companies, leads Manhattan-based Paradigm Capital Group, which specializes in commercial real estate bridge loans, according to his website. He is also an adjunct professor at Fordham University, where he lectures graduate business students on real estate finance.
Kushner declined to comment.
“Mr. Kushner will be cooperating with the U.S. government,” said Frank Agostino, an attorney for Kushner. “We are cautiously optimistic that when they review his documents, books and records, they will agree with us that there is no additional tax due.”
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Agostino was previously the IRS District Counsel in Newark, New Jersey. Before starting his eponymous private practice, he also served as a special assistant United States attorney, and prosecuted criminal tax cases.
In 2019, one of Kushner’s business partners, Marc Gleitman, sued him in New York state court for $2.5 million for allegedly pocketing rental income from two properties. The lawsuit accused Kushner of diverting more than $1 million in rental revenue and alleged he collected $1.45 million by granting an easement on behalf of a limited liability company without consulting his partners.
Kushner was also the focus of a 2016 racketeering lawsuit, which was thrown out of court because a four-year statute of limitations had run out. That matter involved a venture that solicited investments in risky real estate loans.
According to federal prosecutors in New Jersey, Kushner will be arraigned at a later date.