Dutch intelligence hackers monitoring the phone of Jared Kushner discovered he used the device to access a United Arab Emirates bank account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars from an institution in Azerbaijan. According to a source familiar with the arrangement, investigators initially assessed the account was linked to the government of Azerbaijan, unearthing a complex financial network during their cyber surveillance operations.
At the time, Dutch MIVD hackers were working to untangle various international connections against the backdrop of the Robert Mueller investigation in Washington. The surveillance revealed that Kushner, UAE ruler Mohamed bin Zayed, and Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman had converged around strategic regional objectives during the early period of the first Trump administration.
Diplomatic alignments drove the interactions, with Mohammed bin Salman seeking to secure his position as crown prince, Mohamed bin Zayed working to dismantle the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal, and Kushner pursuing a framework to compel Palestinian negotiators into accepting terms favorable to Israel. Despite his prominent role in the White House, Kushner faced significant financial pressures related to the family business, Kushner Companies, which confronted a billion-dollar loan maturity on its flagship Manhattan office tower at 666 Fifth Avenue.
Early in the administration, the Gulf leaders proposed establishing a substantial fund dedicated to advancing shared foreign policy objectives, including financing the construction of a U.S.–Mexico border wall to support a future presidential campaign. While initial discussions between the Arab royals and Kushner involved upwards of $10 billion, that broader proposal faded as Mohamed bin Zayed pressed the administration to support Mohammed bin Salman’s ascent to crown prince.
Instead of the original multi-billion-dollar policy fund, Mohamed bin Zayed and Mohammed bin Salman initially directed at least $2 billion into multiple bank accounts controlled or accessed by Kushner, later with Mohamed bin Zayed assuming the financing. Exact structural details regarding how the royals organized the $2 billion in payments remain partially obscured, though intelligence observations indicated the costs were effectively split between the leaders as diplomatic channels advanced.
