Cadre CEO Ryan Cadre, Jared Kushner, and Josh Kushner (Credit: Getty Images)
Cadre has long drawn scrutiny for potential conflicts of interest as its co-founder and special adviser to the president Jared Kushner acts as international envoy overseas.
A new report from the Guardian raises more such questions about the real estate startup. Since Kushner joined the Trump administration in 2017, Cadre has received $90 million in foreign funding through a Cayman Islands-registered entity run by Goldman Sachs, the publication reported, citing corporate filings and interviews.
“It was one of the only assets that Kushner retained and it continues to collect foreign investors without transparency,” Virginia Canter of watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said.
The identity of the foreign investors is unknown, though sources told the Guardian that a small portion of the funds came from Saudi Arabia, while other funds could be traced back to anonymous entities in the British Virgin Islands.
SoftBank’s Saudi-backed Vision Fund declined to invest in Cadre last year, amid conflict-of-interest concerns stemming from Kushner’s relationship with the kingdom.
“Cadre does not have access to any information about the Goldman Sachs clients who have invested in these vehicles,” a Goldman spokesman said. The investment bank partnered with Cadre in early 2018 to invest $250 million in client money through the platform.
Kushner, his brother Joshua and Goldman Sachs alum Ryan Williams co-founded Cadre as a platform for “democratizing” real investment. After entering the White House to serve as an adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner kept a stake in the company while selling off other assets.
Kushner’s attorneys say he has stepped down from Cadre’s board and that his stake in the company is less than 25 percent. According to his most recent financial disclosures, Kushner’s stake is worth between stake worth between $25 and $50 million. [The Guardian] — Kevin Sun
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