Rama Defends $4 Billion Kushner Resort as 20 Face Albania Money-Laundering Warrants
Updated
Updated · Financial Times · Jun 23
Rama Defends $4 Billion Kushner Resort as 20 Face Albania Money-Laundering Warrants
3 articles · Updated · Financial Times · Jun 23
Summary
Edi Rama rejected accusations he is Albania’s “Godfather” and said Jared Kushner’s planned $4 billion resort was legitimate despite nightly anti-corruption protests running for more than three weeks.
20 businessmen are now wanted by anti-graft prosecutors over alleged drug trafficking and money laundering, with billions of euros suspected of flowing into construction projects on the Adriatic coast and in Tirana.
Artur Shehu — a former landowner near the flamingo reserve tied to the resort area — sold land in 2025 to a company linked to the Kushner project, and prosecutors froze €128 million in payments.
Rama argued the crackdown shows Albania is less corrupt, not more, and said the protests were amplified by hostility to Donald Trump rather than evidence against the investors.
The dispute has turned the Kushner development into a test of Albania’s anti-corruption drive, protected-land rules and ability to attract politically sensitive foreign investment.