Environmental Concerns and Shell Company Investigations

It's Consider this, where every day we go deep on one big news story. todayoday, how a controversial land grab has Albanians protesting corruption Albana is not for sale. Every day, since the beginning of June, thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets of the capitol, Toronto They're angry about a proposed luxury resort along Albania's Adriatic coast one that's linked to two people with close ties to the U. S. president Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner Albanians are angry at their government, which they accuse of letting wealthy Americans exploit their country, and allegations of corruption and illegal development are swirling around the project Protesters are calling for Albania's prrime minister to resign We are here to protect Albanians from thept most corrupted government in the Europe. We are investments, but we are not to the corrupt government. Consider this, a luxury resort project with ties to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump has become a flashpoint in Albanian politics. How do we get here From NPR, I'm Wanna Summers This message comes from Dell teechnologies. Get long lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series three and Telcore. Now from six hundred and ninety nine dollars. W exclusive student pricing from five hundred ninety nine dollars. visit Dell d. com slash deals This message comes from Hys. Notice your hairline creeping back? Hyims makes it simple to do something about it Get access to prescription treatments with finasteride and Minoxidil, ingredients that can help stop hair loss and regrow hair Visit hims d. com slash inPR Compounded drug products are not approved or evaluated for safety, effectiveness, or quality by the FDA. RX required, S website for full details and important safety information. indndividual results may vary This message comes from MintMobile If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees, and free perks, MintMobile is for you pllans at MintMobile d. com slash switch. Taxes and fees extra. See MintMobile for details was Consider this from NPR The way Ivanka Trump tells it, she and her husband, Jared Kushner were on a friend's boat years ago on the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Albania when they stopped for a swim. Factively, that's how we found it. We swam to the islands, we went on a hike. barefoot all the way up to the top and we were just captiv She spoke earlier this month to podcaster David Senra about a stretch of Albania's coastline where she and Kushner plan to build a luxury resort Albania's goverment has given the project preliminary approval, but as NPRs Rob Schmidz reports from the capital Tirana, the plans have prompted a growing protest movement against government corruption. Every day since the beginning of June, this is the scene outside Albanian Prime Minister at Edie Rama's office in Teirana Thousands calling Urama to resign overver a strip of coastal land his government is helping President Trump's son in law Jerred Kushner develop Protester Edin Hoscha says the protests have evolved into a show of no confidence in the Albanian government Where them A guys stealing from us seealing our resources, selling things that are not there to sell Things like Sizan, an uninhabited island across the sea from Seonitz, a strip of beach and cliffs along Albania's Adriatic coast In David Senw's podcast that aired earlier this month, Ivanka Trump described both plots of land as belonging to her and Kushner. Not only the island, but we have s. miles of beachfront, directly across from the island, this beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other beautiful white sand beaches. In an episode called Ivanka Trump on buildilding the authentic L, Trump told Senra that she and Kushner have helped, quote, realize the land's potential. For me, it feels more like a challenge than anything else. The culmination of all of my Experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live. But there are already tens of thousands living their lives on this land Howal Lot Bino stands along a dirt road separating wetland from fields of salt, glaringly white, sparkling in the sunlight The ornithologist holds a pair of binoculars to his eyes and calls out the names of the local residents. This is a black wing stilt then you see common turns and little turns just When you came here it was a little egreid. and then ing I saw at least one but should be more in the lagoon. There are two hundred and fifty species of birds here in this nationally protected lagoon called Viose Narte ino points across the water to a beach where a road for bulldozers has just been built. Birds are the first to suffer, but not only birds, they are already suffering because Building an access road in the middle of the breeding season for a lot of species.' It's horndous. Ivanka Trump says this project shows restraint and care for this pristine environment. But what we see from the project ideas, we see tall buildings to ten thousand rooms. So all this is for sure a new city rather than an environmental pro Environmental organizations have filed legal challenges against the Albanian government over this project Dorian and Matleia is their lawyer. But the main problem here is the problem that this is a protected area He says the land this resort would be built on is protected under the European Union's Natura two thousand, a network of protected areas in the EU Albania is not an EU member yet, it's in the process of becoming one, and Metlah says it's subject to the network's rules But two years ago, Prime Minister Rama ushered in a new law that stripped away the protection of this ecosystem. allowing for the construction of five star hotels But Leah says this violates both Albanian and EU laws. So this is also endangering this long time dream of know joining EU as well. So If Somebody will try to go to the court against that. the have H high chances of winning And that's a big problem for the investors. Another problem for investors. On june second, Albanian prosecutors froze the bank accounts of a firm that purchased land for this project. part of an investigation into fraudulent property titles, and it involves a company owned by the KQatari brothers Motaz and Rames El Kayat were helping finance and build Kushner and Trump's luxury resort They did not respond to an NPR request for an interview When NPR emailed Kushner's affinity partners, a company called Szon Real Estate Development responded with a statement from Asher Abesara The businessman Kushner has teamed up with to build projects in New York. Our focus, the statement said, remains on responsible stewardship, environmental enhancement, job creation, and creating long term value for local communities. The statement also said Kushner's Affinity Partners firm has no role in this project, and that quote, partners are involved as investors in their personal capacity Finding out who those investors are though, has been difficult. From Albanian documents, it's impossible to find out. Lindita Cella is one of Albania's most decorated investigative journalists. For months, she's been tracking down a string of shell companies from Albania to the Netherlands connected to Kushner and Trump's project You see for one company and you see that who owns this company is another another company. If you go to this company another one, you will find another one. other companies still it brings you not to their names but to another company. So you just needed to go digging dig diging. She likens her investigation to opening a set of Russian Matryoshka dolls, one leading to another. She's discovered several of the shell companies share the same address in Amsterdam. Each company is worth a single euro They lead to the smallest Matrioshkadal, a company named Inter Royal BV, owned in part by a Russian citizen named Nikita Maximovich Vinogradov and a Bulgarian citizen named Zoya Giarjiva Girova. Sheella says neither individual has a public profile, but on paper at least, she says this mysterious pair owns hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Albanian property property where on a recent weekend, hundreds of Albanians convergge to protest the project at the proposed sideite of the resort. thirty four year old software engineer Albi Batozi was among them. I don't want anyone to build here because this is our