The family of the now second-term president has become closely associated with Michael Boulos, who married Tiffany Trump, the fourth of Donald Trump’s five children, in 2022 when he was 25 years old.
The 27-year-old allegedly used his relationship with the Trumps for personal benefit on a number of occasions, including a purportedly ruined agreement with his sister-in-law Ivanka Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, according to new reporting from the New York Times.
Boulos allegedly persuaded Kushner to purchase a superyacht when he was employed at his cousin’s yacht agency. But he was allegedly overpaid for the sale by the brokerage. The markup may have been as much as $2.5 million, according to text conversations and a lawyer’s description of the transaction that the Times was able to get.
According to the Times, Boulos and his cousin Jimmy Frangi presented Kushner with the straightforward idea: Find a yacht at a reasonable price, renovate it, and then sell or rent it to generate income. The site claims that Boulos sent Kushner information about a yacht that would eventually be called the Solstice in June 2021.
According to the Times, the brokerage gave Kushner a figure for the yacht that was 12.5 million euros, which included a 1 million euro commission for the company.
However, Mr. Frangi’s text exchanges at the time indicated that his company was earning a lot more than that. According to Mr. Frangi’s conversations, the brokers were paying millions less to buy the yacht than they told Mr. Kushner, the Times reported. As Mr. Frangi informed an acquaintance, THIS MAKES US 3.5.
According to texts the Times was able to get, the business made a concerted effort to keep the information from Kushner. One official advised Kushner not to employ his own appraiser, writing, It’s going to be impossible to hide. But according to reports, Boulos was left out of those messages, so it’s unclear how much he knew about the overpayment.
According to the Times, Boulos allegedly texted coworkers that he and Tiffany were angry when the arrangement appeared to stall.
Tiffany had no knowledge of or interest in any of these transactions, a family representative informed the newspaper.
After the deal was finalized in 2022, Boulos made roughly $300,000, Frangi told the Times. However, the outlet claims that three years later, the yacht is still incomplete in Greece.
A representative for Boulos informed the Times that he had terminated his business partnership with Frangi and had only been paid a predetermined finder’s fee.
They stated that Mr. Boulos is honored and proud of his close, familial relationship with Mr. Kushner.
A Kushner representative told the Times that a contract was still pending and that Boulos was doing a fantastic job of seeking a new buyer for the yacht.
