Kushner had secret fund with billions from UAE, Saudis; Netanyahu helped – report
New book claims Gulf leaders poured money into undisclosed bank accounts, including one in Bank of Israel that PM oversaw; actions would seem to be illegal on several fronts
US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had access, during the president’s first term, to secret bank accounts holding some $2 billion provided by United Arab Emirates leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) and Saudi royal Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), according to a book excerpted by Vanity Fair on Thursday.
One of the accounts, in Israel’s central bank, was reportedly overseen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kushner, a close advisor of Trump in both his first and second terms, denied all the allegations, as did former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who reportedly helped facilitate the arrangement.
The first account, in the Emirates’ First Abu Dhabi Bank, was reportedly discovered by Dutch intelligence, which had obtained remote viewing access to Kushner’s iPhone; they did so after, in 2017, a Russian double agent revealed screenshots from the device, prompting the Dutch to reverse-engineer a security exploit, according to the article.
The report was excerpted from “Princes and Thieves,” an upcoming book by journalist Matthew Cole. According to him, bin Zayed and bin Salman together contributed some $2 billion into at least two bank accounts to which Kushner had access. According to the article, the precise mechanism by which the Emirati and Saudi leaders organized the payments was not clear, but in effect they split the cost.
The first account officially belonged to the Watani Al Emarat Foundation, a charity funded by the UAE government that was already being used as a cover for secret Emirati weapons purchases, with contributions from both bin Zayed and bin Salman.
Kushner and MBZ saw it as part of their joint efforts to reach a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, according to the report. The Trump administration ultimately unveiled its so-called “Deal of the Century” in 2020.
Kushner was made a signatory to the Watani account, giving him access without ownership. According to the report, this could have fallen within Kushner’s authority had he been a Senate-approved official such as the head of the CIA, but he was not.
Cole cited four senior Trump administration officials — two national security advisers, a White House chief of staff, and a former CIA director — who said they did not know of any presidential green light for the mechanism. The report said Kushner was obligated to disclose the arrangement, and may have violated US law by failing to do so.
Through a second account, MBZ transferred some $1 billion to Kushner, and Netanyahu encouraged the Trump aide to deposit it in the Bank of Israel, in what was ostensibly a government account. Cole, citing “a person with knowledge of the money,” said it was nevertheless allocated for the Trump aide’s personal benefit.
Netanyahu required Kushner to notify him before making any transactions, the report claimed, adding that the two men passed information about it through then-ambassador Friedman. The former diplomat called the allegation “100 percent false,” and a lawyer representing Kushner said no such account ever existed.
The report also mentioned negotiations for a third account, allegedly envisioned as “something like a rainy-day defense fund” for the UAE as part of secret, Kushner-brokered diplomacy in which Israel agreed to defend the Gulf state in the event of an Iranian attack. Israel and the UAE later signed the US-brokered Abraham Accords, normalizing relations, and the countries have closely collaborated on defense amid the recent conflict with Iran.
All told, the secret bank accounts likely violated American transparency laws and may also have constituted bribery, as well as undisclosed work for a foreign agent, Cole reported, citing a former US prosecutor.