Business owners reportedly doled out loans to the real estate ventures run by the family of White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The New York Times on Wednesday reported that Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm, and Citigroup both made large loans out to Kushner Companies, the adviser's family real estate business, in 2017. Both payments happened after executives from the businesses met repeatedly with Kushner in the White House.
Apollo's loan totaled $184 million and went towards financing a skyscraper in Chicago, while Citigroup lent Kushner Companies $325 million to fund office buildings in Brooklyn.
Apollo founder Joshua Harris was advising White House officials on infrastructure policy and was reportedly in talks for a job in the Trump administration before making the large loan.
Don Fox, a former military lawyer and acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, told the Times that the payments to Kushner Companies prove "exactly why senior government officials, for as long back as I have any experience, don’t maintain any active outside business interests."
"The appearance of conflicts of interest is simply too great," Fox said.