Topline
Charles Kushner, Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to France, is the father of Trump’s son-in-law and a former real estate mogul Trump pardoned for an earlier conviction on tax evasion and charges involving a revenge plot to set his brother-in-law up in a sex scandal.
Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and witness … [+]
Key Facts
Charles Kushner, 70, graduated from Hofstra University in 1979 and joined his father Joseph Kushner in real estate, later forming Kushner Companies in 1985 while acquiring properties in New York, Pennsylvania and Florida.
By the early 2000s, Kushner Companies had become one of New Jersey’s largest apartment owners and the firm had a portfolio spanning 25,000 units.
In 2005, Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to 16 federal counts of filing false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who served as the lead prosecutor in the federal case against Charles Kushner, alleged the real estate mogul had assisted in filing false tax returns claiming over $1 million in charitable donations as office expenses, causing between $200,000 and $325,000 in losses to the IRS.
While pleading guilty, Charles Kushner also admitted to paying a prostitute $25,000 to lure his brother-in-law to a New Jersey motel room and film them having sex, with the recording then being sent to the man’s wife, Kushner’s sister, to intimidate him as he cooperated with investigators.
Trump pardoned Charles Kushner in 2020, saying he had become “devoted to important philanthropic and organizations and causes” since being released from prison in 2006.
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Tangent
In an interview with PBS in 2019, Christie said his case against Charles Kushner was “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted” as U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Christie has blamed Jared Kushner for pushing him out of Trump’s inner circle after the 2016 election, suggesting the younger Kushner was “still apparently seething over events that had occurred a decade ago.”
Forbes Valuation
The Kushner family has a combined fortune of $7.1 billion, which includes Kushner Companies, stakes in eight personal properties worth at least $100 million and investment firms owned by Jared and Josh. Kushner Companies has a market value of nearly $3 billion, according to our latest estimates, and Charles and his wife Seryl own about 20% of the firm. Josh, founder of the venture capitalist firm Thrive Capital, has an estimated net worth of $3.8 billion. Thrive Capital was an early investor in several startups, including Instagram, Spotify and OpenAI. Jared also holds a 20% stake and owns Affinity Partners, a private equity firm backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
Key Background
Charles Kushner was tapped by Trump as U.S. ambassador to France on Saturday, with the president-elect referring to his pick as a “tremendous business leader, philanthropist and dealmaker” on Truth Social. The elder Kushner and Trump reportedly knew each other while navigating the real estate market, and their children, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, married in 2009. Charles Kushner continued supporting Trump from behind the scenes, reportedly donating $100,000 to a pro-Trump group in 2015 and $1 million to a pro-Trump PAC in 2023. Jared Kushner succeeded his father as CEO of Kushner Companies and later served as a senior advisor during Trump’s first administration and as Director of the Office of American Innovation. He said earlier this year he did not plan on serving in a second Trump administration and would instead focus on his business ventures.
