Real Estate transactions on the old New York Times Building — purchased by Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel subsidiary in 2007 and part owned by Kushner Companies Wendy Siegelman Follow Dec 23, 2017 · 4 min read

In 2015 Kushner Companies bought a stake in the old New York Times building from Soviet-born oligarch Lev Leviev who has close ties to Putin.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Federal prosecutors in New York are looking at the loan made by Deutsche Bank to Jared Kushner’s real estate company a month prior to the 2016 election related to the deal with Leviev. The New York Times also reported on Friday about the subpoena issued out of the Eastern District of New York.

The Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office sent a request mid-November to Kushner Companies for information related to a $285 million Deutsche Bank loan which was used to refinance the purchase of retail space at 229 West 43rd Street in the old New York Times Building.

Lev Leviev’s Africa Isreal Investments Ltd, known as AFI, purchased the property at 229 West 43rd Street in 2007, and has been covered in the news recently because of AFI’s involvement with the Prevezon money laundering case.

The Guardian reported on July 17th about Kushner’s real estate deal with Lev Leviev’s old New York Times building, and Leviev’s connection to the Prevezon money laundering case. Prevezon allegedly laundered money by purchasing real estate from Leviev’s company AFI in Europe and from AFI in New York City at 20 Pine Street. In addition the Daily Beast reported in November that Prevezon also bought a 30 percent stake in four Dutch AFI companies in 2008.

The news Friday about Federal prosecutors looking at the Deutsche Bank loan to Kushner Companies does not indicate any connection to the Prevezon money laundering case. However Kushner’s real estate deal with Leviev, who is connected to the Prevezon money laundering, case is intriguing, especially since Kushner also attended the July 9, 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who represents Prevezon.

To help put the Deutsche Bank loan to Kushner into context, following is a timeline of some of the major real estate transactions related to the old New York Times building at 229 West 43rd Street.

229 West 43rd Street Timeline

2007 — $525,000,000 — Leviev’s AFI buys from Tishman

2011 — Leviev’s AFI converts 229 W 43rd into Condos

2011 — $160,000,000 — Blackstone buys 12 top office floors

2015 — $516,000,000 — Blackstone sells to Columbia Property Trust

2015 — $295,027,000 — Kushner Cos buys 250,000 feet retail space

2016 — $285,000,000 — Deutsche Bank mortgage to Kushner Cos

2016 — $85,000,000 — SL Green Mezzanine loan to Kushner Cos

2017 — $7,766,446 — Cerberus sells to A-B Parent LLC

Timeline with source links

2007 — $525,000,000 — Leviev’s Africa Israel buys 229 W 43rd St