WASHINGTON — White House attorneys are examining whether two loans totaling more than $500 million to Jared Kushner’s family business may have violated any criminal laws or federal ethics regulations, according to a letter from a federal ethics agency made public Monday.

The Office of Government Ethics told a Democratic lawmaker in the letter that the White House is probing whether a $184 million loan from the real-estate arm of Apollo Global Management APO, +1.16% nd a $325 million loan from Citigroup Inc. C, +2.77% may have run afoul of the rules and laws governing the conduct of federal employees.

Both loans went to the Kushner Cos., the private real-estate company founded by Kushner’s father and run by members of his family. Kushner, who is President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and serves in a senior position in the White House, met with top executives of both Citi and Apollo before each loan was disbursed, the New York Times reported last month.

“I have discussed this matter with the White House Counsel’s Office in order to ensure that they have begun the process of ascertaining the facts necessary to determine whether any law or regulation has been violated,” wrote David Apol, the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics. “During that discussion, the White House informed me that they had already begun this process.”

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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White House investigating $500 million in loans to Kushner’s family business