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27 Fordham J. Corp. & Fin. L. 193 (2022)
Peeking into the House of Cards: Money Laundering, Luxury Real Estate, and the Necessity of Data Verification for the Corporate Transparency Act's Beneficial Ownership Registry

handle is hein.journals/fjcf27 and id is 199 raw text is: PEEKING INTO THE HOUSE OF CARDS: MONEY LAUNDERING, LUXURY REAL ESTATE, AND THE NECESSITY OF DATA VERIFICATION FOR THE CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY ACT'S BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP REGISTRY S. Alexandra Bieler* His was a scheme for the twenty-first century, a truly global endeavor that produced nothing a shift of cash from a poorly controlled state fund in the developing world, diverting it into the opaque corners of an underpoliced financial system that's all but broken.' ABSTRACT It is estimated that $800 billion to $2 trillion are laundered globally every year, funding the schemes of bad actors and terrorists alike. These astronomical sums are moved around the world without detection; this is in large part due to the ease with which anonymous shell companies, typically limited liability companies (LLCs), can be created, particularly in the United States. America is one of the most egregious enablers of this practice because most states require little to no information about the person ultimately controlling the entity, known as the beneficial owner. Working through an LLC, bad actors often turn to America's luxury real estate market that enables the cleansing of millions of dollars of dirty money quickly and without a trace. Considering this vulnerability, the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) began to track the beneficial owners behind certain all-cash real estate purchases made by entities and found that a third of buyers had also been subjects of a previous suspicious activity report. * J.D. Candidate, Fordham University School of Law, 2022. Thank you to the Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law for its outstanding edits and continued support, both as an author and an editor. I would also like to thank Professor Martin Gelter for his guidance. Finally, I cannot express how thankful I am for my family and friends for discussing ideas, reading drafts, and keeping me sane. 1. TOM WRIGHT & BRADLEY HOPE, BILLION DOLLAR WHALE 85 (2019). 193