Michael Boulos, who married Tiffany Trump—the fourth of Donald Trump’s five children—in 2022 at age 25, has become closely linked to the family of the now second-term president.
New reporting from the New York Times details instances in which the 27-year-old allegedly leveraged his connection to the Trumps for personal gain, including a reportedly spoiled deal with Jared Kushner, the husband of his sister-in-law, Ivanka Trump.
While working at his cousin’s yacht brokerage, Boulos reportedly encouraged Kushner to invest in a superyacht. However, the brokerage allegedly overcharged him for the sale. Text messages and a lawyer’s account of the deal obtained by the Times suggest the markup could have been around $2.5 million.
Boulos and his cousin, Jimmy Frangi, pitched the plan to Kushner with a simple proposition: “Get a good deal on a yacht, refurbish it and sell or lease it as a moneymaker,” the Times reported. In June 2021, Boulos sent Kushner details about a yacht that would later be named the Solstice, according to the outlet.
The brokerage quoted Kushner a price of 12.5 million euros for the yacht, including a 1 million euro commission for the business, the Times reported.
“But according to Mr. Frangi’s text messages at the time, his firm was making much more than that. The brokers were spending millions less to acquire the yacht than they claimed to Mr. Kushner, according to Mr. Frangi’s messages,” the Times said. “‘THIS MAKES US 3.5,’ Mr. Frangi told an associate.”
Texts obtained by the Times indicate the firm actively tried to conceal the details from Kushner. One executive wrote, “It’s going to be difficult to hide,” advising that Kushner should not hire his own appraiser. Boulos, however, was reportedly not included in those messages, leaving his knowledge of the overcharge uncertain.
When the agreement seemed to stall, Boulos reportedly texted colleagues that he and Tiffany were “pissed off,” according to the Times.
A family spokesperson told the outlet that Tiffany had “no knowledge of or interest in any part of these transactions.”
Frangi told the Times that Boulos earned about $300,000 after the sale was completed in 2022. Yet, according to the outlet, the yacht remains unfinished in Greece three years later.
A spokesperson for Boulos told the Times he has ended his business relationship with Frangi and only received a pre-agreed-upon finder’s fee for the arrangement.
“Mr. Boulos is proud of and honored by his close, familial relationship with Mr. Kushner,” they said.
A spokesperson for Kushner told the Times that Boulos was doing a “great job” finding a new buyer for the yacht and that a deal was pending.
