A letter written by villagers from an Albanian peninsula where Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner plan to build a luxury resort has undermined their assertion that they were unaware of claims the land was stolen.
Nearly two years ago, villagers in Zvërnec wrote a letter to Jared Kushner’s firm pleading with the president’s son-in-law not to develop a $1.4 billion resort on the allegedly stolen land. The villagers informed the firm that they were involved in decades-long court disputes over the property, which was allegedly stolen by Artur Shehu, a suspected gangster accused of forging Ottoman-era land records, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The site, the villagers alleged, is “owned by the village and its residents.”
Kushner’s development group nonetheless went on to complete a deal with Shehu, who shortly afterward was accused by Albanian prosecutors of money laundering, forging historical property deeds, and being part of an international drug ring.
The revelation comes as Kushner’s venture, Sazan Real Estate, has asserted that it had no knowledge of any land disputes, which have been routinely covered in local media.
“We did not see or hear of any dispute at all,” Asher Abehsera, Sazan Real Estate’s chairman, told the Journal.
Meanwhile, protests have erupted over the planned resort after bulldozers and barbed-wire fencing appeared on beaches in late May. In a widely circulated video, private security guards for the Kushner-backed group were captured punching a villager in the face and dragging him across the beach, turning the site into a political flashpoint.
“The only thing that I want now is that they give me back my land,” Kostaq Konomi, village leader of Zvernec, told the Journal.
A spokesperson for Kushner did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
The proposed development has also faced widespread opposition from environmental groups over concerns that it will damage the uninhabited island’s natural landscape. In December 2024, the Albanian Parliament fast-tracked the project by amending legislation that permits construction in environmentally sensitive areas.
While there’s no evidence that Kushner influenced the legislative changes, Albanian opposition leader Sali Berisha has alleged that Prime Minister Edi Rama may have been “seeking to buy political influence” from Trump by approving the president’s son-in-law’s development plans.
“From start to finish there has been a total lack of transparency,” Aleksandër Trajçe, executive director of the country’s leading conservation group, the Protection and Preservation of the Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA), told The Guardian in June.
The controversy has attracted attention from around the world, including pop star Dua Lipa, who holds Albanian citizenship.
“I find it so inspiring to see how much people really care,” Lipa told Albanian academic and author Lea Ypi on her Service95 Book Club podcast, referring to the weeks-long demonstrations.
“What I actually find concerning is the principle that the government could just change the law to remove the environmental protection without any kind of public consultation,” the singer added.
Backlash against the plans intensified after Ivanka discussed them on David Serna’s podcast, saying she wanted to “transform” the island of Sazan with “restraint.”
“We were on a friend’s boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it. We swam to the islands. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way, up to the top. And we were just captivated,” Ivanka added.
