By Fatos Bytyci and Edward McAllister
TIRANA, July 11 (Reuters) – A Miami-based businessman needed in Albania for allegedly laundering drug cash is suspected of faking the deeds to land the place Jared Kushner needs to construct a multi-billion-dollar resort, the nation’s organised crime-fighting company mentioned in case recordsdata reviewed by Reuters.
The businessman, Artur Shehu, denies all accusations in opposition to him, mentioned his lawyer, Kujtim Cakrani, who confirmed that Albanian prosecutors had issued a warrant looking for Shehu’s arrest for laundering cash for drug gangs.
The case recordsdata accuse Shehu and associates of trafficking South American cocaine into European ports, and laundering the funds through the use of them to ascertain an actual property empire, together with with falsified land-ownership paperwork.
“Nothing that has been alleged concerning Mr. Artur Shehu’s character is true. He’s neither a drug trafficker nor a forger of property paperwork,” Cakrani mentioned.
“Mr Shehu is conscious of the allegations made by the Albanian prosecution. These allegations don’t concern him as a result of he maintains that the reality is solely totally different from what the prosecution claims.”
A U.S. Justice Division spokesperson declined to touch upon whether or not it had acquired any request from Albania to find or detain Shehu in Miami.
In April, Shehu offered the strip of pristine Albanian shoreline for the deliberate resort to Albania Land Improvement, an organization which is owned by the Kushner-backed mission’s builders Sazan Actual Property Improvement and different traders.
“Cheap suspicions are fashioned, primarily based on proof, that the above‑talked about property have been acquired by means of the usage of solid paperwork,” prosecutors wrote within the case recordsdata.
The recordsdata make no allegation of wrongdoing in opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Kushner, Sazan Actual Property Improvement, Albania Land Improvement or different traders within the resort mission. Reuters discovered no indication that any traders have been conscious of any suspicions about Shehu once they purchased the land from him.
A spokesperson for Sazan Actual Property Improvement didn’t deal with the allegations in opposition to Shehu when Reuters requested about them, however mentioned the corporate believed the land acquisitions have been professional.
Albania Land Improvement didn’t reply to requests for remark.
A spokesperson for Kushner declined to remark for this story. Whereas Sazan has confirmed Kushner is an investor within the mission, the exact nature of his function or extent of his funding has not been made public.
DISPUTED PROJECT ON PRISTINE LAND
The accusation that the deeds could have been falsified is one other hurdle for a high-profile mission already dealing with mass protests over allegations that it threatens wildlife.
Residents of the village of Zvernec close to the mission have been contesting Shehu’s declare on the land in court docket circumstances that date again greater than a decade.
Final month, a dozen of them confirmed Reuters title deeds and tax data that they mentioned proved they have been the rightful homeowners of the land. Their lawyer, Kostandin Beko, mentioned the case remains to be open and so they plan to hunt a court docket order to halt the resort mission.
Albania, as soon as one of many poorest and most remoted nations in Europe, is now a candidate to hitch the EU and is experiencing a constructing growth alongside a few of the continent’s final unspoiled shoreline on the Adriatic Sea.
The Kushner-backed resort is deliberate alongside a stretch of untamed seashores, forest and a wetland dwelling to sea turtles and flamingoes. The birds have grow to be symbols for opponents of the mission, who name their protests the “Flamingo Revolution”.
Kushner’s spouse Ivanka Trump has mentioned she and Kushner conceived of the concept for the resort once they noticed the coast from a yacht years in the past.
In 2024, Kushner introduced the plans on social media with an artist’s rendering exhibiting the land lined in a lodge, villas, swimming pools and jetties for yachts. He has not publicly disclosed how a lot cash he has invested in it.
Albania’s authorities has strongly backed the plans and says the protests are staged by its political opponents. Prime Minister Edi Rama informed Reuters final month that it was a “lovely” mission and would go forward regardless.
Requested concerning the allegations within the case recordsdata in opposition to Shehu, a authorities spokesperson mentioned the federal government wouldn’t intervene in non-public transactions, however that the mission was continuing in compliance with Albanian and EU legal guidelines.
Brussels has beforehand referred to as on Albania, as a candidate for EU membership, to abide by EU environmental guidelines in reference to the mission. A spokesperson for the EU’s govt Fee didn’t present further remark for this story.
ALBANIAN PROSECUTORS STEP IN
The case recordsdata in opposition to Shehu have been ready by Albania’s Particular Construction Towards Corruption and Organised Crime, often known as SPAK, arrange in 2019 to battle corruption with its personal investigators and prosecutors unbiased of the common police and prosecution service.
The recordsdata include 200 pages and haven’t been made public. When requested concerning the case recordsdata, a spokesperson for the company confirmed that SPAK was investigating the subject material, however declined to remark additional.
The recordsdata are dated June 12, 2026. The identical day, SPAK additionally publicly introduced arrest warrants for 20 individuals for trafficking narcotics and laundering the cash raised by that commerce.
In contrast to the case recordsdata, which absolutely establish Shehu and different figures by identify, the arrest warrants establish the suspects solely by their initials, in step with normal observe in Albania by which suspects should not publicly named earlier than they’re charged.
The initials within the arrest warrants all correspond to the total names of individuals described within the case recordsdata, together with one suspect recognized as “A.Sh.”
Shehu’s lawyer Cakrani, confirming that Shehu was a goal, mentioned he was unconcerned concerning the arrest warrant, because it was “extensively believed” that Albanian prosecutors operated underneath the affect of politicians and enterprise figures.
SPAK has not mentioned whether or not any of the 20 suspects has since been arrested or charged.
THE ALBANIAN LIVING IN MIAMI
The SPAK paperwork say Shehu offered the land for the resort mission for round €110 million, funds which it says it ordered to be frozen within the account of a notary, stopping the cash from reaching Shehu.
Shehu and associates “bought land utilizing illegally obtained funds and solid possession paperwork by creating false property titles or artificially rising the dimensions of properties,” SPAK mentioned within the recordsdata.
“The properties have been then transferred or exchanged so they might not simply be traced by the authorities.”
A spokesperson for Sazan Actual Property Improvement mentioned: “We proceed to imagine the underlying land acquisitions have been performed lawfully and in accordance with relevant procedures. As all the time, we respect and can cooperate with any lawful course of as required.”
Reuters requested the spokesperson to elaborate on why the corporate believed the land acquisitions have been lawful, given the prosecutors’ allegations in opposition to Shehu, however acquired no additional reply.
Shehu’s lawyer, Cakrani, informed Reuters that Shehu’s household had owned the land because the time of the Ottoman Empire greater than 100 years in the past, and that Shehu had lawfully offered it to the resort traders.
Cakrani described Shehu as an upstanding citizen who sought political asylum in the US in 1998 after “prison gangs” killed his brother and uncle in entrance of him. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm this account.
