The family business · 2016 campaign · № 17
Head of Russian state bank VEB gives Jared Kushner two gifts at a meeting during the transition
“In fact, I gave my assistant these gifts to formally register them with the transition office” Jared Kushner
- Date
- , Prepared statement to congressional committees, released July 24, 2017
- Subject
- Russia
- Benefit
- Gifts and payments
- Government
- Russia
- Beneficiary
- Jared Kushner
- Topic
- Ethics & conflicts
- Era
- 2016 campaign
What happened
Jared Kushner met Sergey Gorkov, the head of the Russian state-owned bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), in Manhattan on December 13, 2016, at the request of the Russian ambassador. VEB had been under U.S. Treasury sanctions since 2014. According to the Mueller report, Gorkov gave Kushner a painting and a bag of soil from the town in Belarus where Kushner's family originated. Kushner said the meeting was diplomatic and that his companies and business were not discussed; VEB said in 2017 that Gorkov met him as head of Kushner Companies as part of a series of business meetings. The report noted that Kushner Companies then had a debt coming due on 666 Fifth Avenue. It said the investigation did not resolve the conflict between the two accounts and did not identify evidence of substantive follow-up after the meeting.