Just How Common Is Money Laundering In Miami Real Estate? You Don’t Want to Know

Remember that pilot program in Manhattan and Miami that was going to track cash sales of apartments. Well, it’s coming up for renewal again. And the Miami Herald is wondering whether the Trump administration’s business-friendly stance will mean the program—which requires title insurance companies to report the beneficial owners (not LLCs or shell corporations) in transactions over $3m in Manhattan and over $1m in Miami—will be discontinued.

In the meantime, for those who keep thinking the art market is being used for money laundering, look how prevalent it is in real estate:

In the United States, it’s possible for a shell company to buy a home without anyone knowing who the real owner is. That allows criminals to stash cash in real estate, officials say.

“We don’t come across [money laundering in real estate] once every 10 or 12 cases,” said John Tobon, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations Deputy Special Agent in Charge for South Florida. “We come across real estate being purchased with illicit funds once every other case. And then the challenge becomes who is the real owner. … When we knock on the door of the individuals involved in the real estate transaction, they say they don’t know.”

Will Trump continue federal crackdown on real estate?  (Miami Herald)