The U.S.Treasury Department will begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end luxury real estate in Manhattan and Miami Dade County because of concerns about the illicit flow of money.
This is the "first time the federal government has required real estate companies to disclose names behind 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," writes Louise Story of The New York Times, "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."
FULL STORY: U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate
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