▲ Jared Kushner
U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been confirmed as the largest shareholder of a financial firm that has made massive investments in Israel's weapons industry.
In particular, the financial firm reportedly held stakes in companies involved in Israeli military operations even while Kushner, effectively acting under a U.S. Middle East special envoy mission, was deeply engaged in Gaza peace negotiations and other related efforts, raising conflict-of-interest controversies.
U.S. broadcaster CNN reported on the 1st, local time, that its own analysis based on Israeli public filings and other data confirmed Kushner's private equity firm, Affinity Partners, is the largest shareholder of Israeli financial company Phoenix Holdings.
According to CNN, neither Kushner nor Affinity made direct investments in the Israeli weapons industry.
However, it was confirmed that Phoenix holds stakes in at least nine companies supplying military equipment to the Israeli military, ranging from drones and naval vessels to explosive devices.
Representative examples include Phoenix investing at least 265 million dollars, approximately 361 billion won, in Elbit Systems, Israel's largest defense contractor.
Elbit has benefited from surging weapon demand since the outbreak of the Gaza war, with its stock price soaring by more than 165 percent.
Phoenix also invested more than 68 million dollars (approx. 92.6 billion won) in Next Vision, a manufacturer of military drone cameras, and at least 40 million dollars (approx. 54.5 billion won) in Reshef Technologies, which produces artillery fuzes.
In addition, investments were made in Israel Shipyards, which sells fast attack craft to the Israeli Navy, Ashot Ashkelon, which produces tank parts, as well as U.S. companies Boeing and Caterpillar.
CNN reported that Affinity does not directly hold stakes in these nine companies, and no circumstances were found indicating that the actions Kushner took while leading Middle East negotiations influenced the investments.
However, the outlet pointed out that a conflict of interest is inevitable given that while tasked with halting the war, he has generated profits through companies that profit the longer the war continues.
Cynthia Brown, an adviser at the U.S. government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, criticized the situation, stating, "There are always people who profit from war or government policies, but the problem is that the person profiting should not be the one making those policies, and that is precisely what is happening right now."
Kushner's attorney argued to CNN that he has had no involvement in Phoenix's investment decisions, and that his activities as a Middle East envoy have never influenced the investments.
Regarding the point that Kushner stated in a Forbes interview in September of last year that he was actively engaging with Phoenix executives, the attorney explained that while they regularly discussed market trends and strategies at the time, interactions have dropped sharply since he became actively involved in diplomatic activities.
A White House spokesperson also dismissed the conflict-of-interest controversy, calling it "the same tired allegations that Democrats have leveled against President Trump and his family over the past decade."
(Photo: Getty Images)
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