Treasury Issues New Anti-Corruption Rules to Bust Criminal Money Laundering

August 28, 2024

Treasury Issues New Anti-Corruption Rules to Bust Criminal Money Laundering

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today issued two anti-corruption rules designed to help law enforcement identify and stop illegal money laundering in the U.S. by corrupt foreign officials, Russian oligarchs and drug cartels in the residential real estate and private investment industries.

The Anti-Money Laundering for Residential Real Estate Transfers rule requires professionals who facilitate all-cash residential property real estate sales to legal entities such as shell companies and trusts - rather than individuals - to file transaction reports in a law enforcement database that detail the actual people making the real estate purchase.

Separately, the Anti-Money Laundering for Registered Investment Advisers rule requires investment advisers working with private equity, hedge funds and venture capital funds to do due diligence on their clients and report suspicious financial activity, as investment advisors working with mutual funds and publicly traded companies have long been required to do.

In response, Jon Golinger, democracy advocate with Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

"These new anti-corruption rules are valuable corruption-busting tools, and we applaud the Treasury Department for moving them forward. Treasury's new Real Estate Anti-Money Laundering rule will frustrate Russian oligarchs who hide their ill-gotten wealth in Manhattan penthouses or Florida luxury beach houses and the U.S. developers who have been illegally profiting for years selling condos to secretive buyers without caring who they are. With these new rules, the real estate and investment industries are required to be responsible and do their part to prevent corrupt funding from flowing freely in the U.S."