WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is looking to expand reporting requirements on all-cash real estate deals to help crack down on bad actors’ use of the U.S. market to launder money made through illicit activity.
The Treasury Department was posting notice Monday seeking public comment for a potential regulation that would address what it says is a vulnerability in the real estate market.
Currently, title insurance companies in just 12 metropolitan areas are required to file reports identifying people who make all-cash purchases of residential real estate through shell companies if the transaction exceeds $300,000.
“Increasing transparency in the real estate sector will curb the ability of corrupt officials and criminals to launder the proceeds of their ill-gotten gains through the U.S. real estate market,” said Himamauli Das, acting director of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Das said the move could “strengthen U.S. national security and help protect the integrity of the U.S. financial system.”
The metropolitan areas currently facing reporting requirements are Boston; Chicago; Dallas-Fort Worth; Honolulu; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; New York City; San Antonio; San Diego; San Francisco; and Seattle.
The U.S. real estate market has long been viewed as a stable way station for corrupt government officials around the globe and other illicit actors looking to launder proceeds from criminal activity.
The use of shell companies by current and former world leaders, and those close to them, to purchase real estate and other assets in the U.S. and elsewhere was recently spotlighted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ publication of the “Pandora Papers.”
The leaked documents acquired by the consortium showed King Abdullah II of Jordan, former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair and other prominent figures used shell companies to purchase mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century.
The tax dodges can be legal but have spawned various proposals to enhance tax transparency and reinforce the fight against tax evasion.
The effort to push for new real estate market regulation comes as the Biden administration on Monday issued its “U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption.”
The strategy was published as President Joe Biden prepares to host the first White House Democracy Summit, a virtual gathering of leaders and civil society experts from more than 100 countries that is set to take place Thursday and Friday.
The strategy offers broad brushstrokes for confronting corruption at home and abroad. It includes calls for the U.S. government to shore up regulatory gaps, elevating anti-corruption in U.S. diplomatic efforts and bolstering the protection of civil society and members of the media, including investigative journalists, who expose corruption.
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The Biden administration, you may read Democrats as a whole, want to snoop in everybody’s business, financial, personal, public, one big data bank of a person’s entire life, most likely they will find more Democrats guilty of whatever they are looking for and cover it up while accusing others of the same infractions!
That’s why most folks i know who DO real estate do it all cash, is to avoid the HASSLE OF ALL THE FRAPPEN govt paperwork…
They are so interested in where to steal money from us rather than fixing our issues in this country and allowing free enterprise give them the tax money they could use for their special projects in stead of emulating Jesse James or Bonnie and Clyde.
“The leaked documents acquired by the consortium showed King Abdullah II of Jordan, former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair and other prominent figures used shell companies to purchase mansions, exclusive beachfront property, yachts and other assets for the past quarter-century.”,,,well golllllly Goober, just how do you think the Biden Crime family got rich? How about more oversight and investigations into Joe’s Ukrainian and Chinese family crime deals that he gleaned his 10% of cash on the barrelhead and made Hunter a multi-millionaire! This is not the Biden pot calling the American tax dodgers kettle black, it’s the Biden pot smokers unable to tell the difference. between the burners and the bribers. As usual they are surveilling the wrong people, the producers instead of the consuming wealth redistributors. When it comes to shell companies, if you want to find which nut the pea, is under
HELL< how's about investigate EVERYONE IN CONGRESS, to see how many of THEM ARE using shell companies, off shore accounts etc, to avoid paying THEIR FAIR SHARE of taxes!?
Das said the move could “strengthen U.S. national security and help protect the integrity of the U.S..
If Frock Joe Biden really wanted to “strengthen U.S. national security and help protect the integrity of the U.S..”
#1. Close the U.S. borders to illegal immigrants.
#2. Stop destroying the U.S. energy production.
#3. Stop trying to be a socialist dictator.
#4. Commit yourself Camel toe Harris to a mental asylum.
HE DOESN’T give a rats *** about our national security< OR PROTECT OUR integrity.
A great way to launder money, agreed! But what about Chinese, Middle Easterners, etc. buying up our land and property?? They are making housing costs soar! America should not allow foreigners to buy land or property in the USA!! The Chinese are buying up thousands of acres of our farm land!! Plus, we don’t know who these foreigners are and how they got the money to buy these expensive mansions and companies!!
PLUS….IT IS A MATTER OF OUR SOVEREIGNTY AS A NATION!!!!
Ironic that Biden, who grew up in The Keystone State of Pennsylvania, would immediately shoot down any further construction on the Keystone Pipeline. Then again, “Keystone Joe” was routinely taking the Amtrak train between DC and Delaware during the heart of the 1970s and early 1980s energy crises. Trump’s energy policy will get respect from historians, and working men and women, I’ll venture.
^durable respect.
“This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private”
They’re more than eager to move the goalposts. Next they’ll be aiming to ramp up surveillance of cash withdrawals, precious metals transactions, etc.
Hey, the “big guy” has to have his 10%.
Which you can bet your last cent on, HE HAS NEVER EVER PAID one single dime of taxes on!