There’s a new development in the Jared Kushner, Saudi billions story that broke in the New York Times last week and generated hundreds of hours of air time on Hunter Biden over at Fox News. Look for the Fox hole to fill up with more laptop scandal when Jared Kushner’s latest mal paso gets reported.
This is choice. This is vintage Kushner. He didn’t go so far as to say, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” in his prospectus, but he might as well have. The Intercept:
The slide deck confirms the fund’s reliance on Kushner’s government experience and connections, particularly with regard to Saudi Arabia, to gin up business. The pitch to U.S. investors prominently advertises the team’s experience in the Trump White House, including on the Abraham Accords — a series of agreements that normalized formal diplomatic relations between Israel and some Arab countries — and a key oil production agreement reached with OPEC+, the oil cartel led by Russia and Saudi Arabia. “Aligned economic interests can solve intractable problems and create previously unrealized value,” reads one slide in the deck, which is marked “confidential.”
“Affinity’s unique network and experience makes us a differentiated partner for companies navigating the rapidly evolving global political and economic environment,” reads another. Affinity’s “value add” is depicted as a two-way arrow between “strategic partners/investors” and “target companies/operating businesses.”
There’s more about how strategic partners/investors work with one another but you get the gist of it, I wash your back, you wash mine and then Mohammad bil Salman comes along and tucks us in, unless he doesn’t like you, then it’s bone saw time.
The slides describe Kushner as “leading the negotiations on the historic OPEC+ oil agreement in April 2020 among the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, which led to the largest oil production reductions in history as the Covid-19 economic crisis shocked global demand for the commodity.” Beyond smacking of revolving door politics, the reference to the agreement seems to hint at Kushner’s influence with the oil-rich Saudi kingdom. He traveled to the region earlier this year, meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed as well as the CEO of Aramco, Saudi’s national oil company.
A spokesperson for Kushner denied there was anything untoward about Affinity’s pitch. “Jared was very successful in the private sector before he entered government, achieved great success in government, and many are confident he will enjoy continued success in his new venture,” the spokesperson told The Intercept in a statement. “Jared’s track record in government was unprecedented. His leadership and efforts led to the historic Abraham Accords, the [U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement] which was the largest trade deal in history, life changing criminal justice reform, Operation Warp Speed among many other achievements.”
The slides make repeated reference to Affinity’s “network,” which includes a bevy of Trump administration appointees depicted in a “Team Members” section. The pitch is light on details of the actual product, with business pablum peppered throughout: “Accelerating transformation through connectivity,” the slide deck begins.
A source in contact with multiple U.S. investors approached by Affinity said the investors were not attracted by the presentation and described their shock at how cavalierly it seemed to suggest influence peddling, a “value add” often handled with more subtlety in the investment world. “They said they’d never seen such a joke of a deck, openly talking about ‘networking’ and ‘networks’ — i.e., our corrupt insider contacts,” the source said on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. “They’re bragging about ‘networks,’ they’re using cliches, with no serious investment discussion.”
The last comment says it all. That is pure Kushner. When he was made Secretary of Everything, along with his “team” which was described as “frat boys in pencil suits descended from a UFO,” Kushner was throwing around buzzwords like “empowerment” and “implementation” and talking of his unique ability to “motivate” people. He was going to “implement” a world class COVID testing program, you may recall, and when it came down to it, what he managed to achieve, by way of imitating South Korea’s then-highly successful drive through testing program was to create a total of three drive through facilities in one county in California. That’s it. He can talk the talk but man, he cannot walk the walk.
Meanwhile, MBS wants to know where are the American investors because right now Jared’s capitalized mainly by he crown prince’s cash and he feels somewhat naked. We hate to tell you, Your Majesty, but if you’re doing business with Kushner, you’ve just moved into a glass house — and you’re on your way to the shit house.
If I were Jared I’d start avoiding Saudi Embassies and Consulates. Or even taking a ride in one of their vehicles bearing Diplomatic tags (technically their soil too). For that matter he should avoid business meetings in buildings or office spaces they own, or visiting private homes of wealthy Saudis. Of course, this is Jared we are talking about and he probably thinks he’s so special that a bone saw can’t cut into him. He’s wrong of course but he’s fucking with not just the money but the image of someone who doesn’t like being publicly conned – and who has shown NO problem getting retribution against all manner of people including family to prove to others they shouldn’t fuck with him. Not that I wish the worst on Jared from MBS, but I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it either.
Jared is like a Greek tragedy character, his fatal flaw will undo him. His fatal flaw is overestimation of his own abilities.
The hyperbole sounds a lot like his father-in law. One of them rubbed off on the other.
The REAL issue here is whether the investment has been a good one. The prospectus should have had relative performance information which the “entirely negative” article sidesteps. Not informative.