Citigroup Says CEO Was Unaware of Loan When He Met With Kushner
Citigroup CEO was unaware that the bank was in the process of closing a real estate loan to a Kushner Cos.
(Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. said Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat was unaware that the bank was in the process of closing a real estate loan to a Kushner Cos. venture when he met with Jared Kushner.
Corbat requested the March 2017 meeting with Kushner, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, to discuss U.S. trade policy and didn’t discuss the loan or any personal business with Kushner Cos., the bank’s general counsel said in a letter to four Democratic senators. New York-based Citigroup said the Kushner family has been a client for decades and the loan on a Brooklyn real estate project was made with no input from Corbat.
Rohan Weerasinghe, the general counsel, wrote that the bank’s correspondence was in response to a letter from the senators about the bank’s relationship with Kushner Cos.
The process for the loan on the project, which was 47.5 percent owned by Kushner Cos., started in late 2016 and closed March 31, 2017. On March 3, the date of the meeting, the loan had received preliminary approval, the bank said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dakin Campbell in New York at dcampbell27@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Nick Baker
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