Trump Condo Sales Meet Treasury Dept. Flag For Money Laundering: Report
Over 20 percent of condo sales in Trump properties were all cash transactions to shell corporations – a measure the Treasury Department has for possible money laundering.
More than 20 percent of President Trump’s condo sold since the 1980s were paid for in secretive all-cash transactions by secretive shell corporations, according to a new BuzzFeed News investigation.
And of 6,400 Trump condo sales, more than 1,300 were sold were bought by shell companies, not individuals.
As BuzzFeed notes, “Trump condo sales that match Treasury’s characteristics of possible money laundering totaled $1.5 billion, BuzzFeed News calculated. They accounted for 21% of the 6,400 Trump condos sold in the US. Those figures include condos that Trump developed as well as condos that others developed in his name under licensing deals that pay Trump a fee or a percentage of sales.”
These real estate transactions were completed without a mortgage meaning they avoided lender scrutiny from banks or regulators.
As BuzzFeed notes, Trump’s real estate transactions – all-cash sales to shell corporations – meet the Treasury Department test for possible money laundering and warrant regulator scrutiny.
And one example that BuzzFeed details is Trump’s controversial Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium project where 77 percent of the sales were to shell companies that paid cash.
The report goes on to note that the shady condo sales surged in the late 2000s and early 2010s, around the same time that Donald Trump Jr. announced that the Trump Organization had “a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
Read the full BuzzFeed News report here.
[image via Creative Commons/Gage Skidmore]
