Locals accuse Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump of ‘taking what is ours’ for billion-dollar resort project in Albania

Local residents in Albania are accusing Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump of attempting to take land away from them for two luxury resort projects.

The daughter and son-in-law of former President Donald Trump are looking to invest almost $1bn in the area. Kushner previously announced his plans to build a hotel and a number of beach villas on a part of land that has been farmed by an Albanian family for generations but which was seized from them after the end of the Communist regime in 1991, according to The New York Times.

“They are trying to take from us what is ours,” Bledar Alexandros Konomi told the paper. Konomi used to help take care of cattle on the part of the mainland where Kushner now wants to build a hotel. His claim to the land is supported by court records.

Kushner is also seeking exclusive development rights on the small island of Sazan, where the Soviet Union stored military supplies during the Cold War.

A second bid to develop the island has been submitted by an Albanian-American developer from New York, documents obtained by The Times show.

Developer Evi Kokalari-Angelakis told the paper that the Albanian government has disregarded her proposal to ingratiate themselves with the former president in the event he returns to office in January.

Kokalari-Angelakis added that she chose to speak to the paper after Ivanka Trump claimed in July that she and Kushner had made an agreement to develop Sazan, which was used as a submarine base by Italy during World War II.

Opposition party member in the Albanian parliament Agron Shehaj said the process of choosing a developer had lacked transparency, which “makes it look like this is a private deal that is in the political interest of the prime minister of