Netflix Series Will Examine Jared Kushner's Real Estate Empire
The real estate empire of Jared Kushner, son-in-law and adviser of President Donald Trump, will be the subject of an episode of the second season of the Netflix original documentary series Dirty Money, which will drop on March 11.
The episode, "Slumlord Millionaire," will focus on tenants in Kushner Cos. properties who are speaking out against Kushner, who was the company's chief executive until he joined the Trump administration.
One example: Kushner Cos. owns about 9,000 rental units in Maryland, many of which are in Baltimore County, according to the Baltimore Sun. Tenants at some of the properties have reported mice and maggot infestations and mold growth.
The Kushner Cos. apartments in Baltimore County racked up more than 200 code violations during 2017, The Washington Post reported. Kushner Cos. and its affiliates have also been sued frequently by Baltimore-area residents, alleging the use of excessive fees and unlawful eviction threats.
In 2018, the company was cited for falsifying construction paperwork at 17 Kushner New York City properties undergoing renovations, though The Real Deal reports that Kushner Cos. was hardly alone in that particular practice.
While Jared Kushner has been an adviser to his father-in-law, his father, Charlie Kushner, has been running Kushner Cos., which has continued to expand its holdings. About a year ago, the company acquired a portfolio of more than 6,000 apartments in Maryland and Virginia for $1.1B from Lone Star Funds. The deal was the largest acquisition for Kushner Cos. in more than 10 years.
Dan DiMauro and Morgan Pehme will direct the Dirty Money episode about Jared Kushner. They previously created a documentary for Netflix about longtime Trump adviser and recently convicted felon Roger Stone.
Each episode of Dirty Money focuses on a single example of corporate corruption. First season episodes covered the Volkswagen emissions scandal, money laundering by HSBC and the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, which involved the theft of nearly 3,000 tons of maple syrup in Quebec in the early 2010s.
Other episodes of the second season will cover 1MDB scandal, which involved the theft of billions from Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, and the consumer fraud practiced by Wells Fargo.
The episode about Kushner will not be the first time the series has dealt with Trump-related matters. The sixth episode of the first season, which first dropped on Jan. 26, 2018, dealt with the business dealings of the president himself.
That episode, called “The Confidence Man” and directed by Fisher Stevens, examined the origins of the president’s wealth, including interviews of friends and associates from the days when Trump developed New York real estate, and also invented his public image as a real estate billionaire and businessman on TV.
