Good morning pedes! When I was house shopping in 2020, I noticed a weird phenomena that may have been going on for an unknown amount of time. I was seeing houses that were selling for the "going rate", but when I looked into the prior sales history, there would be buyer A who bought at the "going rate" from seller A (up to a few years in the past, then buyer A would sell it to buyer B for an incredibly reduced amount, and then buyer B would sell it at the present "going rate". It didn't seem like cases of "foreclosure-house trashed by occupant-then sold and re-modeled, and then sold at going rate", and it seemed like it could be a money laundering scheme, so much so, that I contacted the local FBI office (before I knew about how corrupt they have become) to report what I had observed, but never heard back from them :) If the first two parties involved are in on it, then it seems that it could be a way to launder money. There could be the "tax loss tax savings" on the first sale, and since there is not capital gains tax now, the second sale would have no income tax implications. I was just looking at mostly one county in NY, so the potential totals across a wider area could be massive. What say you?
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Yes houses have been a way to launder money for ages.
Australian Examples https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/09/widespread-money-laundering-in-property-locking-out-australians-from-owning-homes-senate-told
https://www.austrac.gov.au/business/how-comply-guidance-and-resources/guidance-resources/strategic-analysis-brief-money-laundering-through-real-estate-2015
Canadian Example https://financialpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-shining-a-light-on-money-laundering-in-canadian-real-estate
London Example https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/08/how-the-kazakh-elite-put-its-wealth-into-uk-property
This looks like actions by possibly law-abiding people, I'm wondering if organized crime could be using this scheme to launder many, many millions.
Yea it is just google it.
I wasn't thinking in terms of "legal" money laundering, for tax purposes, conducted by "regular" citizens, I was thinking in terms of an organized crime effort to use this as a way to launder illegal funds.
Here is a handy guide to spot it :-) https://www.cresinsurance.com/money-laundering-in-real-estate/
Drug cartels, con artists, and corrupt foreign governments can purchase a property in the United States for millions of dollars in cash with little to no reporting.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247512473_Organized_crime_money_laundering_and_the_real_estate_market_in_Canada
https://www.yourmortgage.com.au/mortgage-news/dirty-money-could-be-entering-the-housing-market-expert-says
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/14991-report-u-s-real-estate-is-no-1-destination-for-laundered-dirty-money
Or if you like a report from Interpol that shows property as a seized asset
https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/17-arrests-in-spain-for-large-scale-drug-trafficking-and-money-laundering