The family of Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, apologized for using his name in a real-estate pitch in Beijing.
About 100 people attended the Shanghai event where they were told they could become U.S. residents under a "EB-5" visa programme if they put United States dollars 500,000 into the project.
The event was organized by Beijing-based immigration services company QWOS and Kushner Companies, according to an advertisement on the Chinese company's website, which says the project is seeking $150 million from 300 EB-5 investors. (The lawyer also insists that Kushner will recuse himself from any future White House deliberations on possibly reforming the EB-5 visa.) Attendees at the presentation surely understood how politically connected the Kushners are even without his sister getting into specifics.
"Ms. Meyer wanted to make clear that her brother had stepped away from the company in January and has nothing to do with this project", the company said in the statement, which was cited Monday by CNN.
A Kushner family company is gathering investments in a luxury tower in New Jersey under the EB-5 visa program.
Kushner's mother and siblings are beneficiaries of that family trust, a White House official confirmed. She was only allowed to get her phone back once she deleted all the photos and videos. The EB-5 is known as "the golden visa" among Chinese but an EB-5 via the Kushners is really more of a platinum visa.
The EB-5 visa program has been under scrutiny in the past - including most recently in March, when Rep.
Trump, who advocates restrictive immigration policies, extended the EB-5 investor program without long-promised reforms as part of a massive federal spending bill.
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Meyer was in China to attract funds from Chinese investors through the US government's EB-5 visa program, the New York Times reported.
Neither Kushner Companies nor Qiaowai gave an immediate reply to Quartz's inquiries.
But this is just the latest example of a business decision made by Trump's family members that has raised more than a few eyebrows about the administration's ability to fully separate business from politics.
The New York Times reported that the family business' investment drive is also "highlighting their ties to Mr. Kushner as they court investors".
But Larry Noble, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, says, "The strong feeling is that they - the Trump family, the Kushner family - see the White House and being in the government as a marketing opportunity".
She mentioned that her brother formerly was chief executive of the Kushner Companies, a position he resigned as he and his wife, Trump's oldest daughter Ivanka, moved to Washington and joined Trump's staff. Journalists were also barred from attending a similar pitch to investors by Meyer on Sunday in Shanghai, according to Reuters.
On Monday, Kushner Companies issued an apology, and a clarification for what Meyer.
Nearly all EB-5 investors are Chinese nationals, but the government keeps their names confidential. In 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, the United States issued over 10,000 such visas-and 85% of them went to people from China.
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