AML

US to track ‘dirty money’ invested in NYC, Miami luxury real estate

The Treasury Department announced it will require real estate companies to disclose the names behind cash transactions of $3 million or more for high-end real estate in New York and Miami. The effort is to expose suspected money laundering in real estate.

“We are seeking to understand the risk that corrupt foreign officials, or transnational criminals, may be using premium US real estate to secretly invest millions in dirty money,” Jennifer Shasky Calvery, director of Financial Crimes Enforcement at the US Treasury Department, said in a statement Wednesday.

The initiative will require US title insurance companies to identify the “natural persons” behind companies paying “all cash” for residential real estate in Manhattan and Miami, both of which are major destinations for global wealth. Natural persons are those who own 25 percent or more of the equity interest in the property.