A Miami businessman wanted in Albania for alleged drug money laundering is suspected of faking deeds to the land where Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner hope to build a multi-billion-dollar resort, new reports show.
Albania's anticorruption prosecution service is investigating whether Artur Shehu transferred land to Albania Land Development, a Kushner-linked company, with forged deeds and falsified titles, according to reporting by Al Jazeera and Reuters.
"Prosecutors allege Shehu and his associates funnelled proceeds from cocaine trafficking into Albanian property, using falsified titles to disguise the money’s origin, and have since frozen roughly 110 million euros ($126m) tied to the sale in a notary’s account," Al Jazeera reported.
Shehu’s lawyer Kujtim Cakrani denied the allegations to Reuters.
“Nothing that has been alleged regarding Mr Artur Shehu’s character is true,” he told Reuters. "Mr Shehu is aware of the allegations made by the Albanian prosecution. These allegations do not concern him because he maintains that the truth is entirely different from what the prosecution claims."
A Justice Department spokesperson declined Reuters' request for comment.
Ivanka and Kushner's announcement that they plan to build a $1.6 billion luxury resort on Sazan Island, a protected nature preserve and Albania's largest island, already sparked mass protests. It hasn't stopped the couple from moving forward with the deal and snapping up coastal land.
Neither Ivanka, Kushner nor Albania Land Development has been accused of wrongdoing in the case.
Shehu sold a strip of pristine Albanian coastline to Kushner's company in April, according to reporting by Reuters.
"Reasonable suspicions are formed, based on evidence, that the above-mentioned assets were acquired through the use of forged documents," according to case files reviewed by Reuters.
Reuters also reported that an Albanian organized crime-fighting agency issued a warrant seeking Shehu's arrest for laundering money for South American cocaine traffickers shipping drugs into European ports.
Cakrani confirmed Shehu was a target but said he was unconcerned about the arrest warrant, telling Reuters it was "widely believed" that Albanian prosecutors operate under the influence of politicians and business figures.