The Albanian-American man who sold land for a Jared Kushner-backed luxury resort on the Adriatic coast is under active investigation for drug trafficking and money laundering — and Albanian authorities have frozen a bank account holding more than $127 million tied to that very land sale, according to court records reviewed by CBS News.
While the establishment press obsesses over Trump's domestic business revenue, the real swamp action happens overseas, where American political families cut deals with characters under criminal investigation, and foreign governments sell protected coastline to connected investors. This is exactly the kind of arrangement the America First movement was built to oppose — and exactly the kind both parties in Washington pretend doesn't exist.
Artur Shehu, a Miami Beach resident with dual U.S. and Albanian nationality, is being investigated by Albanian prosecutors who allege there is "sufficient evidence" of his "involvement in drug trafficking criminal activity" and "sufficient data" suggesting he falsified financial documents around other real estate and construction projects, according to Albanian court filings dated June 10 obtained by CBS News. Albania's anti-corruption body SPAK confirmed it has opened an investigation into the planned development, but a spokesperson told CBS News the probe "does not concern any company associated with Mr. Kushner." The claim that a probe into the land deal doesn't concern the buyer is a remarkable framing — one CBS reported but didn't press.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Project reported last month that an Albanian court order froze a bank account containing more than $127 million originating from the land sale "between parties Artur Shehu and Albanian Land Development" — the LLC linked to Kushner and his investor group. Albania's Special Court Against Corruption and Organized Crime acknowledged the order exists but refused to release it, citing ongoing investigation.
The land itself has been contested for over a decade. CBS News reviewed 2013 court records showing residents of Zvërnec — the historically protected coastal area earmarked for the resort — disputed Shehu's ownership, claiming they had rights to the area. Those residents are still actively fighting the deal.
Meanwhile, thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets for over a month in what activists call "the flamingo revolution," named for the protected migratory birds whose habitat the development would threaten. The protests turned violent Thursday. The Associated Press and WDIV ClickOnDetroit both reported that police fired tear gas, pepper spray, and a water cannon at protesters who pelted them with rocks, eggs, and plastic bottles, smashing a police car window with a metal barrier. Twelve officers were injured and 18 protesters detained.
Protester Agustela Thoma told the AP: "The protesters want their voice to be heard inside (the parliament), as the prime minister for so many days has not heard them and has ignored them. But enough is enough." Interior Minister Besfort Lamallari condemned "the acts of vandalism and criminal violence" against police.
Albania's Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama has pushed the development as transformational for the former communist nation's bid to enter the high-end tourism market and join the European Union. The AP and WDIV both framed the protests as having "morphed" from environmental concerns into broader anti-government demonstrations — a telling word choice that buries the lede: the anger is about corruption and who profits from selling off protected land to politically connected foreign investors.
Kushner announced his involvement in 2024. Ivanka Trump referenced the plans on the "Founders" podcast last month. The American political class doing luxury resort deals in countries where the land sellers are under drug trafficking investigations — and where $127 million gets frozen mid-transaction — is the exact bipartisan swamp business that voters on both sides keep saying they want drained.
The open question: SPAK says its investigation doesn't touch Kushner's companies. But if $127 million from a land purchase is frozen and the seller is under investigation for drug trafficking and money laundering, at what point does the buyer's due diligence — or lack of it — become the story?
