Dutch Intelligence Discovered Russian Hackers Accessed Jared Kushner's iPhone During Secret UAE Financial Deals

**The Hacked Phone and the Dutch Discovery**

In the early years of Donald Trump's first administration, Dutch military intelligence — the MIVD — stumbled onto one of the most explosive financial secrets in recent American political history, and they did so through a chain of events that began with a Russian spy caught between two bad options on British soil. When that GRU operative was confronted by Dutch handlers upon arriving in England, he was given a stark choice: cooperate or face British arrest and a lengthy prison sentence for espionage. He chose to cooperate, and in doing so granted the MIVD access to a remote server operated by GRU hackers based in Rostov, Russia. Among the files stored there were screenshots of Jared Kushner's iPhone — evidence that Russian intelligence had already penetrated the senior White House advisor's device.

The Dutch reverse-engineered the Russian intrusion and, by early 2018, found their own way into the iPhone X that Kushner was then using. The access was partial — no remote camera activation or file manipulation — but it gave analysts a continuous view of his screen as he used it. What they observed was striking: Kushner regularly logged into a UAE bank account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars routed through a bank in Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani routing was not incidental. Banks there have developed well-worn but unofficial practices of accepting transfers in Saudi riyals or Emirati dirhams, converting them to US dollars at a fee of roughly 6 to 7 percent, and sending the equivalent sum to a requested destination in a way that defeats standard audits. The paper trail ends at Azerbaijan; the ultimate origin of the funds disappears.

**The Alpha and Beta Accounts: A Parallel Financial Architecture**

The Dutch had captured only a fragment of what turned out to be a far more elaborate arrangement. According to multiple sources with direct knowledge, UAE ruler Mohamed bin Zayed — MBZ — and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — MBS — began funneling money to Kushner as early as 2017, with the total reaching at least $2 billion across at least two distinct accounts.

The first, designated the Alpha account, was held at First Abu Dhabi Bank, the largest in the UAE, and was chaired by Tahnoon bin Zayed, MBZ's own brother. Roughly $750 million in Saudi and Emirati funds flowed into it. The account's cover story was a UAE government-funded charity called the Watani Al Emarat Foundation, run by Dherar Belhoul Al Falasi, a member of the Federal National Council with close ties to MBZ's inner circle. The Watani Foundation was not merely a philanthropic organization. A confidential source with direct knowledge described it as a vehicle used to fund the UAE's secret military and intelligence operations overseas, including covert weapons-purchasing programs, with its charitable status providing a layer of protection from international scrutiny. Kushner was made a signatory on this account — meaning he had access and could theoretically authorize transactions — but did not own it outright.

The second, the Beta account, was even more unusual. By spring 2018, MBZ had moved roughly $1 billion through Azerbaijan to Israel's Central Bank, earmarked for Kushner's personal benefit. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly encouraged this arrangement and required that Kushner notify him before any withdrawals. Those notifications were allegedly passed through then-US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who met frequently with Netanyahu. Because Israel's Central Bank holds only government funds and uses a dual-authorization system for transfers, the money was effectively locked behind Netanyahu's approval, making it extraordinarily difficult to trace back to its Emirati origins. Kushner allegedly used Cyprus as an intermediate stop to move funds out of Israel into less traceable accounts elsewhere. A third account, apparently structured as an emergency defense fund to cover the UAE's costs for an Israeli commitment to help defend it against a major Iranian military strike, rounded out what amounted to a shadow foreign policy financial infrastructure.

**Legal Exposure and the Question of Authorization**

The legal implications are layered and severe. Federal ethics regulations and IRS rules require any US government employee with signatory or beneficiary access to a foreign bank account to disclose that access. Kushner filed annual public and confidential financial disclosure forms — the 278e — throughout his tenure as senior White House advisor, a position that also required him to hold a security clearance. If the Alpha or Beta accounts existed as described and were not disclosed, those omissions would represent violations of federal financial disclosure law.

More significantly, four senior Trump administration officials — including two national security advisors, a White House chief of staff, and a former CIA director — have said they had no knowledge of any presidential authorization for Kushner to access foreign government bank accounts. If Kushner shaped US foreign policy toward the UAE and Saudi Arabia while receiving billions from their governments without authorization or disclosure, former federal prosecutors familiar with the Mueller investigation have noted he could face exposure under foreign bribery statutes and the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires Americans lobbying on behalf of foreign governments to register with the Justice Department.

Kushner's legal representatives have flatly denied the entire account. His counsel has stated that he made no agreements with foreign leaders outside of presidential approval, that he complied with all legal requirements, and that he has no knowledge of any such bank accounts — that they do not exist and never did. Ambassador Friedman similarly issued a categorical denial, calling the specific allegations about his alleged role 100 percent false.

**Why This Matters: Power, Money, and Middle East Dealmaking**

The backdrop to the financial arrangement was a convergence of interests that shaped one of the most consequential periods of Middle East diplomacy in recent memory. MBS wanted Saudi Arabia's crown prince position secured. MBZ wanted to dismantle the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal. Kushner, who despite the appearance of wealth was not entirely financially independent and whose family's flagship property — 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan — faced a billion-dollar loan coming due, wanted leverage to push a regional normalization framework that would satisfy Israel. According to one source familiar with the arrangement, Kushner promised MBZ that he would advance the UAE's agenda with Trump in exchange for participation in the fund, framing it as necessary to unlock Israeli-Palestinian normalization and catalyze regional business opportunities.

Sources familiar with Gulf Arab financial practices have noted that slush funds of this scale — shared pools for off-the-books diplomatic objectives — are not unusual among Gulf governments. A billion or two, in their calculus, is a reasonable investment if it purchases policy outcomes. What makes this situation categorically different is that the recipient was a sitting senior official of the United States government, operating without apparent congressional oversight, Senate confirmation, or, according to those closest to the president, even his father-in-law's explicit authorization. The arrangement, if accurate, describes not back-channel diplomacy but a privatized foreign policy conducted by a presidential family member whose financial interests were intertwined with the governments he was negotiating with.