Explosive allegations published this week claim that Dutch intelligence secretly watched Jared Kushner's iPhone during the first Trump administration and saw him accessing offshore accounts stuffed with billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, funds allegedly meant to buy influence over American foreign policy. Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser at the time, has flatly denied the claims, calling them "completely insane" and "categorically false."
The allegations come from an excerpt of investigative journalist Matthew Cole's forthcoming book, Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East, published by Vanity Fair on October 22, 2026. Cole reports that Dutch military intelligence (MIVD) found screenshots of Kushner's iPhone X on a Russian military intelligence server, then reverse-engineered the vulnerability to mirror Kushner's screen in real time starting in early 2018.
What the Dutch Spies Allegedly Saw
According to the book, the Dutch watched Kushner log into a UAE-linked account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars routed through a bank in Azerbaijan, a channel allegedly used to obscure the money's origins. A source told Cole that Kushner appeared to move significant sums from the account to other individuals, including a warlord, a mercenary and a former hit man.
Cole identifies the account as the "Alpha" account at First Abu Dhabi Bank, held in the name of the Watani Al Emarat Foundation, a UAE government-funded charity. Nearly $750 million was allegedly transferred into it, and Kushner was reportedly an undisclosed signatory on the account, though not its owner. Oversight of the account sat with Tahnoon bin Zayed, chairman of the bank and brother of UAE ruler Mohamed bin Zayed, known as MBZ.
A Slush Fund for American Foreign Policy
The book alleges that MBZ and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) were behind the idea of the account. They reportedly wanted to set up a slush fund to help the Trump administration with its foreign policy goals, with the two royals at one point discussing putting more than $10 billion into a broader fund. The bigger plan fizzled, but Cole reports the royals ultimately directed at least $2 billion into at least two accounts tied to Kushner.
One source quoted in the book put the alleged bargain bluntly: "Jared promised MBZ that he would push their agenda with Trump if they participated in a fund." A former Mueller prosecutor told Cole that Kushner may have run afoul of federal bribery and foreign-agent laws if he promised anything in return.
The Second Account and Netanyahu's Role
Cole also reports a second "Beta" account in which MBZ allegedly transferred about $1 billion to Israel's Central Bank, money characterized by one source as "for Kushner's personal benefit." According to the book, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged Kushner to deposit the money in Israel, and Kushner communicated about the transactions through then-US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, even allegedly notifying Netanyahu before making transfers.
The backdrop matters: after leaving the White House, Kushner's private equity firm, Affinity Partners, received a $2 billion investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund led by MBS, a deal that already drew scrutiny from ethics watchdogs. Kushner, 45, has now returned as one half of the president's unofficial peacemaking duo alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff.
The Denial and What Comes Next
Kushner rejected every claim on X on October 22, 2026, saying his team had denied them all on the record and that Cole provided "not a single shred of evidence," no bank statements, wire records, account numbers or transaction dates. "I was one of the most scrutinized people in the world," he wrote, noting his 30-plus hours of testimony before investigators. His attorney, Chad Mizelle, added that "there are no accounts and never were," calling the claims "egregious and defamatory" and saying "all options are on the table" when asked if Kushner would sue.
The takeaway: the reporting rests on unnamed sources describing classified intelligence, and nothing has been established as a finding of wrongdoing. But if Cole's claims withstand scrutiny, they describe one of the most brazen alleged foreign-influence schemes in modern American history, and they land at a moment when Kushner is again at the center of high-stakes Middle East diplomacy. Expect lawsuits, congressional pressure, and a long fight over the evidence.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Lightless Dawn (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0