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Patrick
2016 Jan 13, 4:27pm
Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties.
The initiative will start in two of the nation’s major destinations for global wealth: Manhattan and Miami-Dade County. It will shine a light on the darkest corner of the real estate market: all-cash purchases made by shell companies that often shield purchasers’ identities.
they should look at san francisco as well.
turtledove
2016 Jan 13, 4:49pm
What about international cash buyers? Gotta wonder about people from communist countries, for example, who have enormous amounts of cash lying around. Or are we just going after US citizens and US companies?
What? No more money laundering in real-estate? Oh no!....
Ridiculous. Anyone smart enough to have millions to launder in real estate is smart enough to set up a trust in the cook islands or a bearer corporation in nevis so that a title company has no way of finding out the owner. WTF is treasury going to do when the title company says we couldn't find out?
Pure political theatre, no one in the US government wants to stop billions of dollars in dirty money from pouring into the US. The US is where 95% of money laundering happens in the first place. If you aren't a US citizen the US is the best place on the planet to launder money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/us/us-will-track-secret-buyers-of-luxury-real-estate.html?ref=business
It is the first time the federal government has required real estate companies to disclose names behind all-cash transactions, and it is likely to send shudders through the real estate industry, which has benefited enormously in recent years from a building boom increasingly dependent on wealthy, secretive buyers.
The initiative is part of a broader federal effort to increase the focus on money laundering in real estate. Treasury and federal law enforcement officials said they were putting greater resources into investigating luxury real estate sales that involve shell companies like limited liability companies, often known as L.L.C.s; partnerships; and other entities.
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What? No more money laundering in real-estate? Oh no!....