A Miami-based businessman wanted in Albania on suspicion of laundering drug money is suspected of forging title deeds to land where Jared Kushner wants to build a multi-billion dollar resort, the country’s organized crime agency said in case files reviewed by Reuters. The businessman, Artur Shehu, denies all charges against him, said his lawyer, Kujtim Cakrani, who confirmed that Albanian prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant seeking Shehu’s arrest for laundering money for drug gangs.
The case files accuse Shehu and his associates of trafficking South American cocaine to European ports and laundering the funds by using them to create a real estate empire, including forged land ownership documents. “Nothing that has been alleged regarding the character of Mr. Artur Shehu is true. He is neither a drug trafficker nor a forger of property documents,” Cakrani said.
“Mr. Shehu is aware of the charges made by the Albanian prosecution. These charges do not concern him because he maintains that the truth is completely different from what the prosecution claims.” A spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department declined to comment on whether it had received any requests from Albania to locate or detain Shehu in Miami. In April, Shehu sold the strip of pristine Albanian coastline for the planned resort to Albania Land Development, a company owned by the Kushner-backed project’s developers, Sazan Real Estate Development, and other investors.
“Reasonable suspicions are raised, based on the evidence, that the aforementioned assets were acquired through the use of forged documents,” prosecutors wrote in the case files. The files make no allegations of wrongdoing against the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, Kushner, Sazan Real Estate Development, Albania Land Development or other investors in the resort project.
Reuters found no indication that any investor was aware of any suspicions about Shehu when it bought the land from him. A spokesman for Sazan Real Estate Development did not respond to Reuters’ inquiries about the allegations against Shehu, but said the company believed the land purchases were legitimate. Albania Land Development did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Kushner declined to comment for this story. While Sazan has confirmed that Kushner is an investor in the project, the exact nature of his role or the extent of his investment has not been made public.
DISPUTED PROJECT ON STATE LAND
The allegation that the deeds may have been forged is another setback for a high-profile project that is already facing massive protests over accusations that it threatens wildlife.
Residents of the village of Zvërnec near the project have contested Shehu's claim to the land in court cases dating back more than a decade.
Last month, a dozen of them showed Reuters property deeds and tax records that they said proved they were the rightful owners of the land. Their lawyer, Kostandin Beko, said the case is still open and they plan to seek a court order to stop the resort project.
Albania, once one of Europe’s poorest and most isolated countries, is now a candidate to join the EU and is experiencing a construction boom along some of the continent’s last untouched coastline on the Adriatic Sea. The Kushner-backed resort is planned along a stretch of wild beaches, forest and a marsh where sea turtles and flamingos live. The birds have become symbols for opponents of the project, who call their protests the “Flamingo Revolution.”
Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, has said that she and Kushner got the idea for the resort when they saw the coast from a yacht years ago. In 2024, Kushner announced the plans on social media with an artistic drawing showing the land covered with a hotel, villas, swimming pools and yacht docks. He has not publicly disclosed how much money he has invested in it. Albania’s government has strongly supported the plans and says the protests were organized by its political opponents.
Prime Minister Edi Rama told Reuters last month that it was a “beautiful” project and would go ahead regardless. Asked about the allegations in the case files against Shehu, a government spokesman said the government would not interfere in private transactions but that the project was proceeding in accordance with Albanian and EU laws. Brussels has previously called on Albania, as a candidate for EU membership, to comply with EU environmental rules regarding the project. A spokesman for the EU’s executive Commission had no further comment for this story.
ALBANIAN PROSECUTORS INTERVENT
The case files against Shehu were prepared by Albania’s Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, known as SPAK, which was created in 2019 to fight corruption with its own investigators and prosecutors independent of the regular police and prosecution service. The files run 200 pages and have not been made public. When asked about the case files, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed that SPAK was investigating the case, but declined to comment further. The files are dated June 12, 2026. On the same day, SPAK also publicly announced arrest warrants for 20 people for drug trafficking and money laundering.
Unlike the case files, which fully identify Shehu and other figures by name, the arrest warrants identify the suspects only by their initials, in keeping with standard practice in Albania in which suspects are not publicly named before being charged. The initials on the arrest warrants all correspond to the full names of the individuals described in the case files, including one suspect identified as “A.Sh.” Shehu’s lawyer, Cakrani, while confirming that Shehu was a target, said he was not concerned about the arrest warrant, as it was “widely believed” that Albanian prosecutors were acting under the influence of politicians and business figures.
SPAK has not said whether any of the 20 suspects have been arrested or charged since then.
ALBANIAN LIVING IN MIAMI
SPAK documents say Shehu sold land for the resort project for about 110 million euros, funds he says he ordered to be frozen in a notary’s account, preventing the money from reaching Shehu. Shehu and his associates “bought land using illegally obtained funds and falsified property documents by creating false title deeds or artificially inflating the size of the properties,” SPAK said in the filing.
“The properties were then transferred or exchanged so that they could not be easily traced by authorities.” A spokesman for Sazan Real Estate Development said: “We continue to believe that the underlying land purchases were carried out legally and in accordance with applicable procedures. As always, we respect and will cooperate with any legal process as necessary.”
Reuters asked the spokesperson to explain why the company believed the land purchases were legal, 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 Ottoman Empire more than 100 years ago, and that Shehu had legally sold it to the resort investors. Cakrani described Shehu as an upstanding citizen who sought political asylum in the United States in 1998 after “criminal gangs” killed his brother and uncle in front of his eyes. Reuters could not independently verify the claim.
