Strawman example.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Thirty percent of the cash purchases of high-end real estate by shell companies in six major cities involved a suspicious buyer, according to an investigation conducted by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to find out who was behind the deals.

If suspicious they mean corrupt Chinese officials trying to launder their money, then I'd say their estimate of 30% is low...

30%?

I'd say 100% of cash purchases of high end real estate by shell companies should arouse suspicion.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Sounds like we are all in agreement that reducing or better yet eliminating burdensome regulations and oversight is the clear path forward.

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Don't hold back

Or we should end the drug war, being that that is the main reason why people launder money.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

The most regulated part of the industry the article talks about would be the banks right ? Which criminals take out of the equation by purchasing the properties with cash.

Just so I am not confused, this is Trumps fault correct ?

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

I don't see the connection between this statement and the story.

I'm sure Sessions will be all over that.

Sessions said to reporters Monday at the Department of Justice. “I believe it’s an unhealthy practice, and current levels of THC in marijuana are very high compared to what they were a few years ago, and we’re seeing real violence around that.”

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Don't hold back

Sessions is an idiot but I assume that you'd agree with him that deregulation of weed would be bad.

Btw, how old are you?

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

What are you trying to get me to buy you beer?

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Don't hold back

I don't drink.

Just reading your posts lately I'm having a hard time picturing you being any older than your mid 20s.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I've been reading your posts for 5 or 6 years and I'm having a hard time believing that you don't drink.

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Don't hold back

I used to drink heavily so there's likely some permanent damage.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Even when there are cash buyers. It is remarkably difficult to move large sums around without being subjected to significant due diligence

I would be interested to know what checks are made on cash purchases from off shore companies. How far they are able to go in finding the real source of funds

That said i know of some armenians that own a significant proportion of mayfair and i'm told the source was a baby food manufacturing business. I took that at face value......

Does anyone know what the fuck he is talking about?

Does he?

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

Come to Vancouver. Whole condo buildings and high end neighbourhoods there sit vacant, bought for cash by Chinese students and housewives with no declarable income.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Banks and businesses have had to report cash transactions over $10k since 1970. I haven't seen anything that says that is being repealed. So what exactly is your beef?

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I miss YaHey

Did you read the article? Here is another one:

http://globalnews.ca/news/3350193/canada-launder-money-real-estate-report/

I've read both articles and neither mentions any regulations that are being done away with, so I still don't know the OP beef. Your article only pertains to Canada and so has no bearing any way.

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I miss YaHey

Beat me to it. Just take a walk around pretty much any high end area in the evening and you will see so many dark windows, it is like a ghost town.

Not necessarily, a lot of celebrities buy real estate through these means to obscure their ownership and so paparazzi don't hang outside all the time.

My wife deals in real estate, her company had to vet llcs to ensure all owners were sound. A lot of major companies have had these regulations put on them. So while using an LLC is definitely a means to launder money, it isn't as easy as you think to buy high volumes. My guess is it is a lot like other Chinese purchases lately. The have so much cash (legally) they have to rest it somewhere secure. That is why they are buying companies, real estate, and other hard assets.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Yes, I know. I train bjj with a few people you'd know and I'm friends with some others.

They come to live in Santa Barbara for a reason and that is to be left alone. They all take steps to ensure that.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I think the Chinese are also acutely aware of the anti-chicom sentiment of their money flowing so much in our economy, it just makes sense to remove the hassle.

I recall a few years back boycotts of the Chinese owned companies and apartment buildings. Who want the hassle.

Setting up LLCs in different states can be a hassle to. And setting up in an easier state doesn't make using it to deal in other states any easier. My company deals half and half in AZ and FL. If I had done an LLC vs a c-corp, the effort I would have had to go through in florida would have been equal to az. Almost made more sense to create an LLC in Florida owned by my company in AZ, creating a whole host of issue with payroll and licensing.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Without renting out these properties, I don't see the that many advantages.

In the case of the Chinese, it is better than holding cash in the long term. I can think of a whole host of reasons why buying real estate, even without rents would be a safe avenue for cash. Not necessarily the best, like rentable property, but that isn't the point. Nor have I found that the Chinese are really good at investing anything.

Think of them like trailer trash that won the lottery. You can take the person from the trailer, but never take the trailer out of the person. Many Chinese didn't grow up with business savy parent, or peers. Many of them are millionaires or billionaires through cronyism and not so much because they produced something of value. So they are still learning, or relying on what others told them to do. Real estate in the form of just buying property is a semi-liquid asset with gains and losses easy to understand.

My wife's cousin had a business a few years back where they would help Russian billionaires spend their money in the US. I mean, how many leather Prado sport coats and Rolexes can you own right? I thought the whole idea was absurd. Here you had a guy who made his own millions through hard work, business savy and investments teaching new Russian millionaires and billionaires how to spend their money. And most of it was spent on garbage. YOU EVER SEE THOSE WEIRD DIRECT TV COMMERICALS.



There you go. True to form.

Because they didn't earn that money, they were often bureaucrats or children of bureaucrats who were at the right level when communism fell and were able to sell state assets or control state assets for their own benefit. This is how many of the oligarchs came to be. So many of them are still no smarter than mid level bureaucrats at places like your local utility, DMV, or even Federal Gov't agriculture co-op. Yet now have millions or billions to play with and no sense of real value.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Its viewed like gold

Qatari's are the single biggest landowner in london now at something like 22m sq ft

They intend to invest another 5bn sterling in next 5 years

If your country or currencies future is questionable, real estate is a safe place to park equity in their view and historically they would have been correct

As a total aside. I am in the process of refi and last thursday i was notified that the mortgage funds had left my bank in jersey and i'd complete fri or monday.

Anyway, funds don't arrive fri, or mon or tues or today.

It turns out that because the area i live in is called "north soudan" having spent three weeks convincing them its not north sudan, they released cash to london who then stopped the payment because they thought it was north sudan.

It is a) not quite as easy as one would think to launder large sums in most places and b) now much more expensive to purchase via a llc in london as you pay an additional 3% sdlt on purchase then an annual tax on enveloped dwellings starting at about 15k on 2m per year.

That said if hiding cash is the point then those taxes are peanuts when the service charges on some of these flats run to 15k sterling a month

Yeah, I get that it still has some value, but I don't think this commodity is nearly as safe, if actual vacancy rates are rising. That screams "bubble".

As another aside, I just sold my mom's house in Seattle to a nice Asian couple. Never met them. Just wondering....

https://www.google.com/...-sold-but-unoccupied

I suspect some of this commodity is safer than others

And even if its not, and is a bubble, its still probably a better investment than downtown athens or riyad

Though possibly not in this case:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...sement-rennovations/

Still more stable than the Yuan, Rubble or other 2nd or 3rd world currencies. Let's also not forget, a lot of citizens from these countries want to move their currency out of their countries and hide it from their Socialist gov't that can and do seize assets on a whim, for any reason. By investing in an LLC with assets, whose ownership is only known by the incorporating entity, your gov't can't come to your house and take your ownership stake without knowing you own it, and forcing you to sign it over under penalty of arrest.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

That's a very Chinese thing though. Their newly capitalist government is pushing the people to invest in real estate, and actively propping up their bubble after creating it. So people gobble up real estate very fast with little means. But the more Chinese thing is to leave them vacant. There's a couple reasons why:

• Construction in China is shit. It makes 70s Harleys look like fine machinery.
• Doing a tenant fitout / remodeling / etc. would actually lower the value of the property. As stupid as it seems in the west, an empty concrete box is worth more than a livable space

Also, most retail developments are funded by one-off shell companies. It's done, usually, to protect the assets of the developer.

And one final thought, related: https://www.bostonglobe.com/...eKo48ZPYN/story.html

Old dude donates a lot of money to Worcester Poly (WPI). His ex-wife sues him because he was hiding the money($40M+) in a Swiss bank account and didn't disclose it during the divorce. Then the court found out that the old dude paid someone from the ghetto to kill or find someone to kill his son after his kids tried to force him out of the family business. He's also being investigated for wire fraud and tax evasion. And he might have skipped the country to Aruba. Apropos to the thread ;)