Venable partner Ed Wilson was quoted in a June 1, 2015 Law360 article on money laundering in the real estate industry. Last month, the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) spoke on the need for increased transparency in luxury real estate deals involving shell companies. The comments are viewed as a sign that the agency is preparing to crackdown on the industry that could have an impact on certain cross-border deals.
"What FinCEN is seeing is an area of our economy where we have not pressed the application of the anti-money laundering laws and the FinCEN director wants to get people's attention before she comes out and does enforcement actions," said Wilson.
To help weed out weed out potential money laundering in real estate deals the FinCEN director called on the private sector to perform greater due diligence. "f the rule is implemented correctly, criminals will be prevented from investing in special-purpose vehicles before a property deal is even struck,"said Wilson. "ntil everybody gets used to it, it's likely going to slow down some transactions."