The federal authorities has recently announced in Wednesday the new rules that will help prevent criminal activities from using real estates in order to hide their illegal income, as reported by NBC News.
This new rule will require title insurance companies to bare those people who use cash in order to buy luxury homes in Miami and New York as these two states are known to be the market of pricey real estate.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the U.S, Treasury Department has taken action and will oversee this move. "We are seeking to understand the risk that corrupt foreign officials, or transnational criminals, may be using premium U.S. real estate to secretly invest millions in dirty money," said Jennifer Shasky Calvery; director of the said department.
Allegedly, these luxury apartments that are being investigated have been bought by foreigners, some Russian fraudsters who shell companies offshore in order to get a property in the country. The person who exposed this scandal was coming from a Lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky, also a Russian. The man was also arrested after filing a complaint but he died in jail during the pre-trial.
According to the US Department of Justice, these Russian criminals defrauded their fellow Russian using an elaborate fraud tax refund scheme. The value of fraud was amounting to approximately $230 million, as reported.
It seems that the members of this organization are trying their best to conceal this illegal activity and they would retaliate to those who would try to expose it thus Magnitsky's death.
As cited from The Guardian, the US government right now is preparing for the court battle that will happen next week, in order to take control of those luxury apartments in Manhattan area that was used and has been the property involved in this criminal activity.
