Prosecutors in New York have targeted the Trump family’s links with Deutsche Bank, a German financial institution that has lent hundreds of millions of dollars to the real estate businesses of the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The New York Times reports that prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York have subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank.
Mr Kushner, chief executive of Kushner Companies until January, still owns part of the business after selling some of his stake.
It doesn’t appear that the investigation is linked to that being being conducted by Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Three prosecutors on Mr Mueller’s team previously worked at the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn, where the new probe is taking place.
Brooklyn lawyers have been looking into the Kushner businesses’ use of a program known as EB-5. It offers visas to overseas investors in exchange for $500,000 investments in real estate projects.
Deutsche Bank appears not to be involved in Kushner real estate projects financed through the EB-5 program.
“We are unaware of any inquiry directed at Deutsche Bank from the E.D.N.Y. and have no reason to believe there is one,” said a spokeswoman for the Kushner Companies.
The Kushners have ties to Deutsche Bank going back many years. Mr Kushner and his mother have a line of credit from Deutsche Bank worth $5 million to $25 million, according to the New York Times. The bank also provided a $285 million mortgage to Kushner Companies last year.
“EB-5 is a longstanding federal program that is frequently used by many large developers to raise funds and help create jobs,” Kushner Companies’ general counsel, Emily Wolf, said in a previous statement. “Kushner Companies utilized the program, fully complied with its rules and regulations and did nothing improper.”