Villagers Challenge Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's Albania Resort Project Over Land Dispute
Residents of Albania's Sazan island claim their land was sold illegally by a Miami-based businessman with alleged organized-crime ties, prompting legal action that could delay a multibillion-dollar resort planned by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
A group of Albanian villagers is seeking a court order to stop a $1.4 billion resort planned on Sazan island and a broader $4.7 billion hotel development along the Zvërnec coastline, projects promoted by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. The residents say they were the rightful owners of the land, a claim affirmed by an Albanian court in 2013, but the ruling was appealed after the property was sold by Artur Shehu, a Miami resident who asserts ancestral ownership dating to the Ottoman era.
Kostaq Konomi, 81, told Reuters he was blocked from accessing his seafront property by a barbed-wire fence and men in black uniforms. He is among about a dozen locals represented by lawyer Kostandin Beko, who says the court decision has remained unsettled because of Shehu’s appeal.
Shehu, who left Albania in 1999 and now lives in Florida, has been investigated by Italian authorities for alleged ties to organized-crime groups and for possible money-laundering activities. Italian prosecutors have also examined past suspicions of drug-trafficking involvement, though no charges have been filed. A former anti-narcotics official in Shehu’s hometown, Vlora, recounted that gang members attacked Shehu’s bar in 1999, resulting in two deaths, after which Shehu fled the country.
Shehu appeared on Albanian television asserting that his claim to the land was “undisputed” and that he sold it through a middleman without knowing the final buyer. Neither Kushner nor Trump has been implicated in the land dispute.
Albanian authorities state the land earmarked for the development is privately owned, and the project has not yet received a building permit. Reuters could not independently verify the villagers’ ownership documents, though they provided tax records and deeds.
Protests have continued across Albania, with demonstrators expressing concerns about environmental impact and lack of transparency. Prime Minister Edi Rama warned that media reports may have overstated the size of the demonstrations and noted that construction has not begun.
Aleksandr Trajce, executive director of a leading conservation group, said the issue has expanded beyond environmental worries to broader citizen rights, citing the erection of fenced barriers near the Zvërnec site.
