A Miami-based businessman, who is the subject of a request in Albania over drug money laundering, is suspected of manipulating ownership documents for the land where Jared Kushner plans to build a multibillion-dollar resort, according to case files reviewed by Reuters and cited by Albania’s agency for combating organized crime.
The businessman, Artur Shehu, rejects all the accusations, said his lawyer Kujtim Cakrani, who confirmed that Albanian prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Shehu on suspicion of laundering money for drug groups.
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According to the files, Shehu and people linked to him are accused of trafficking cocaine from South America to European ports and laundering the proceeds through investments in a real estate empire, including the use of forged property documents.
“Nothing that has been alleged about Mr. Artur Shehu’s character is true. He is neither a drug trafficker nor a forger of property documents,” Cakrani said.
He added: “Mr. Shehu is aware of the charges brought by the Albanian prosecution. These charges do not concern him, because he says the truth is completely different from what the prosecution claims.”
A representative of the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on whether any request from Albania had arrived to locate or detain Shehu in Miami.
In April, Shehu sold the untouched stretch of Albanian coastline to Albania Land Development, a company owned by the developers of the Kushner-backed project, Sazan Real Estate Development, as well as to other investors.
“Based on the evidence, reasonable suspicions arise that the properties in question were obtained through the use of forged documents,” prosecutors wrote in the files.
The files do not raise any allegation of wrongdoing against U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, or against Sazan Real Estate Development, Albania Land Development, or the other investors involved in the project.
Reuters found no indication that any investor was aware of any suspicions about Shehu when buying the land from him. A spokesperson for Sazan Real Estate Development did not respond to the allegations against Shehu when Reuters sought comment, but stressed that the company believed the land purchases were lawful.
Albania Land Development did not respond to requests for comment. Kushner’s spokesperson also declined to comment on the matter. Meanwhile, Sazan has confirmed that Kushner is an investor in the project, but his exact role and the scale of his investment have not been made public.
PROJECT ON STATE LAND AT THE CENTER OF CONTROVERSY
The claim that the deeds may have been forged adds another problem to the high-profile project, which is already facing major protests over accusations that it endangers wildlife and plant life. Residents of the village of Zvërnec, near the project area, have challenged Shehu’s claim to the land through legal proceedings dating back more than a decade.
Last month, a group of a dozen residents showed Reuters ownership deeds and tax documents which they say prove they are the lawful owners of the land. Their lawyer, Kostandin Beko, said the case remains open and that they intend to seek a court ruling to stop the resort project.
Albania, once among Europe’s poorest and most isolated countries, is now a candidate for EU membership and is experiencing a construction boom along some of the continent’s last untouched stretches of Adriatic coastline. The Kushner-backed resort is planned on a strip of wild beaches, forests and a marsh inhabited by sea turtles and flamingos. The birds in particular have become a symbol of the project’s opponents, who have called their protests the “Flamingo Revolution.”
Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, has said the idea for the resort came to the couple when they saw the coastline from a yacht years ago. In 2024, Kushner made the plans public on social media with an artist’s rendering showing the land transformed with a hotel, villas, swimming pools and yacht piers. He has not publicly disclosed the amount invested. The Albanian government has strongly backed the plans and claims the protests are being organized by its political opponents.
Prime Minister Edi Rama told Reuters last month that the project was “beautiful” and would go ahead despite opposition. Asked about the allegations in the files against Shehu, a government spokesperson said the executive would not interfere in private transactions, but stressed that the project is moving forward in line with Albanian and EU law. Earlier, Brussels had asked Albania, as an EU candidate country, to respect European Union environmental rules in relation to this project. A spokesperson for the European Commission gave no further comment.
ALBANIAN PROSECUTORS SHED LIGHT ON THE CASE
The files against Shehu were prepared by Albania’s Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, SPAK, created in 2019 to fight corruption with investigators and prosecutors independent from the police and the regular prosecution service. The material runs to 200 pages and has not been made public. Asked about the files, an agency spokesperson confirmed that SPAK is investigating the case, but gave no further details. The documents are dated June 12, 2026. On the same day, SPAK also publicly announced arrest warrants for 20 people for drug trafficking and laundering the proceeds from it.
Unlike the files, where Shehu and other figures are mentioned by name, the arrest warrants identify suspects only by initials, in line with standard practice in Albania, where names are not made public before charges are filed. The initials in the arrest warrants match the full names of the people described in the files, including one suspect identified as “A.Sh.” Shehu’s lawyer, Cakrani, while acknowledging that Shehu was a target, said he was not concerned by the arrest warrant because it was “widely believed” that Albanian prosecutors acted under the influence of politicians and business figures.
SPAK has not disclosed whether any of the 20 suspects has been arrested or subsequently charged.
THE ALBANIAN LIVING IN MIAMI
According to SPAK documents, Shehu sold the land for the resort project for about 110 million euros, funds which, according to him, were ordered to be kept in a notary’s account, meaning the money did not go to Shehu. The files say that Shehu and his associates “bought land using illegally obtained funds and forged ownership documents by creating false property titles or artificially increasing the size of properties.”
“The properties were then transferred or exchanged so that they could not easily be traced by the authorities.” A spokesperson for Sazan Real Estate Development said: “We continue to believe that the underlying land purchases were conducted lawfully and in accordance with the procedures in force. As always, we respect and will cooperate with any lawful process, as needed.”
Reuters asked the spokesperson to clarify why the company believed the land purchases were lawful, given prosecutors’ allegations against Shehu, but received no further response. Shehu’s lawyer, Cakrani, told Reuters that Shehu’s family had owned the land since the time of the Ottoman Empire, more than 100 years ago, and that Shehu had lawfully sold it to the resort investors. Cakrani described Shehu as an honest citizen who sought political asylum in the United States in 1998 after “criminal gangs” killed his brother and uncle in front of him. Reuters was unable to independently verify that claim.
