JAMnews also reports Cole’s allegation of a separate $1 billion transfer to Israel. Kushner’s lawyer denies involvement as a US inquiry examines his firm’s separate Gulf investments.
Journalist Matthew Cole alleges that Jared Kushner had authority to approve transactions on a UAE charity’s account containing about $750 million intended for unofficial diplomacy. JAMnews reported on October 23 that Cole’s investigation, published in Vanity Fair on October 22, links the money to negotiations involving the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. JAMnews says the Vanity Fair article is an excerpt from Cole’s new book, Princes and Thieves.
Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former senior adviser, denies the claims through his lawyer. The lawyer said Kushner was unaware of the accounts, had no involvement with them and had broken no laws. Former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman also categorically denied Cole’s allegation that he acted as an intermediary between Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The allegations follow a separate investigation launched by US lawmakers in March 2026 into Kushner’s fundraising from foreign governments for his investment firm, Affinity Partners, while he also engaged in diplomacy.
According to JAMnews’s account of the investigation, Cole alleges that the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service gained access to Kushner’s phone data in late 2017 through a hacker linked to Russian military intelligence. Officers allegedly found screenshots on Russian military intelligence servers, then used the same security weakness to monitor Kushner’s phone screen in early 2018.
Cole describes two separate accounts. He alleges that Kushner had signing authority over the first, called Alpha—permission to carry out certain banking transactions. Alpha legally belonged to Watani Al Emarat, a UAE-government-funded charity, not to Kushner.
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| Account | Amount and timing | Bank and alleged funding |
|---|---|---|
| Alpha | About $750 million from 2017 onward | Held at First Abu Dhabi Bank by Watani Al Emarat; Cole alleges Saudi and UAE leaders supplied the funds through an Azerbaijani bank. |
| Beta | About $1 billion by spring 2018 | Reportedly held at the Bank of Israel; Cole’s sources allege UAE leader Mohammed bin Zayed transferred the money through Azerbaijan to Israel, intended for Kushner. |
Cole alleges that Netanyahu was to be informed of potential transfers from Beta, with Friedman acting as an intermediary. Friedman denies that account. The allegations do not establish that Kushner personally received either sum.
Cole alleges that all deposits into Alpha arrived in US dollars from an Azerbaijani bank. The bank has not been named. JAMnews says no evidence establishes that the funds belonged to the Azerbaijani state or that its authorities arranged the transfers. Dutch intelligence initially suspected a government connection, but Cole’s article supplies no banking documents confirming it.
Cole describes an arrangement in which some Azerbaijani banks accepted Saudi riyals or UAE dirhams, then sent equivalent dollar amounts abroad from separate internal accounts, charging a 6–7% commission. He says that arrangement could make the original source of the money harder to trace.
The alleged 2017–2018 transfers are distinct from later Gulf investments in Affinity Partners. JAMnews describes those investments as separate financial arrangements, not directly linked to Alpha or Beta.
The congressional inquiry launched in March seeks to establish whether investments from Middle Eastern governments in Affinity Partners could have influenced Kushner’s involvement in US foreign policy.
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