Kushner Denies $2 Billion Gulf Fund Claims in New Book

Jared Kushner rejected allegations that he controlled billions of dollars in secret accounts funded by Middle Eastern leaders.

The claims appear in an excerpt from the book 'Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East.' The book by journalist Matthew Cole will be released in the coming weeks.

Kushner served as a senior White House adviser during the first Trump administration. In that role, he helped negotiate major foreign policy deals involving Israel, the Gulf states, China, and Russia. The new book focuses on his influence in U.S. Middle East policy during that period.

The Vanity Fair excerpt published on Thursday outlines a specific sequence of events. It states that Dutch intelligence agents learned in 2017 that Russia had hacked Kushner's iPhone. The Dutch service reportedly gained access to the device after turning a Russian spy. The account claims agents could see his screen and captured every image he viewed.

According to the text, the Dutch spies watched Kushner log into a United Arab Emirates account. The book says that account had received hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank in Azerbaijan. It further alleges that leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE deposited at least $2 billion into several bank accounts tied to Kushner. One of these accounts was held at Israel's Central Bank. The report claims the owners of these accounts were often presented as government bodies or charities. It asserts the money was intended for off-the-books diplomatic objectives, including brokering a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The book cites a person with knowledge of the money who said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed roughly $1 billion in at least one account for Kushner's personal benefit.

Kushner and his legal team issued statements on Thursday night to deny the findings. Kushner said the allegations are completely insane and never happened. He stated that his side denied every claim on the record, yet the author offered not a single shred of verifiable evidence. He noted that no bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, or transaction dates were provided. His attorney described the claims as false and defamatory. The team said it plans to pursue legal action against those responsible without specifying who that would include.

The White House directed reporters to a statement from Steven Cheung, assistant to the president and White House director of communications. Writing on X, Cheung called the source book complete fiction. He said it was fabricated by a failed spy thriller writer. He added that the book presents no evidence or documentation, only mysterious words from unnamed sources.