U.S. Treasury extends its search for dirty money in real estate

[sunonmars]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-money-laundering-real-estate-idUSKBN16226W?il=0

The U.S. Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) will extend for 180 days a rule ordering title insurance companies to report to authorities all-cash purchases in parts of California, Texas, Florida and New York, the agency said in a statement Thursday.

The order mandates that the title companies identify the real purchaser, even when the sale is made through shell companies.

The information was "valuable data that is assisting law enforcement and is serving to inform our future efforts to address money laundering in the real estate sector,” said FinCEN Acting Director Jamal El-Hindi.

The agency said since imposing the original order in January 2016, it has found 30 percent of these cash real estate transactions involve a person who had previously been reported to authorities for suspicious financial activities.

The order was due to expire on Thursday.

The order includes New York City; Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties; Los Angeles; San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties; and San Antonio, Texas.

.....................

Treasury dept going rogue too....lol

[sunonmars]

1. Interesting that Palm Beach is specifically named too....

[fleur-de-lisa]

2. They should start with Donny Dumpster. eom

[Wounded Bear]

3. This is a weapon of much destruction...

aimed right at Trump.

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. Wait for it...incoming 3-2-1

Jamal El-hindi..Acting FinCEN Director...you're fired, trump....

[MineralMan]

5. Back in 2004, my wife and I moved from CA to MN.

We had sold our house in California, which was paid off. When it closed we had a big fat check from the escrow company. I deposited it in our Wells Fargo account in California, and we left three days later for Minnesota. I drove the big moving truck and my wife drove our minivan. We hadn't bought a house in Minnesota yet and stayed with her parents in MN for a month.

We found a house in St. Paul, MN, a week after we arrived and bought it. It closed a month after we had arrived in MN. It was a very odd thing, I thought, when the realtor and the escrow company in MN were confused that we'd be paying for the house in full at closing. They didn't seem to know how to do such a transaction. I had to prove to them that I had the money in a bank account, so I had to get a letter from my new Wells Fargo branch in MN saying that we could pay for the house in cash. Actually via a cashier's check.

I had the hardest time getting the escrow company to give me an accurate figure for the final amount to be paid. I only got that number 24 hours before closing and they were still confused about how such a transaction would work. The 20-somethings from the escrow company just didn't get it. I finally had to tell them that I'd hand them a cashiers check from my bank for the total due at closing. What did they think was going to happen? Wells Fargo had no problem with it. When I got the total, I walked in, told the teller that I wanted a cashiers check in that amount. She had to call over a floor manager, but they checked my account and cut the check while I stood there. It took five minutes, maybe.

Everything went fine at the closing, except that the amount had gone up about $75 for the total I had to hand over. The 20-somethings got all confused again over that. I said, "No problem," and wrote a check for the amount. They had to call the freaking bank to make sure my check for $75 was good.

It was amazing. I was astounded that none of the people at the title/escrow company had ever had a cash sale for a house before. So, apparently such transactions aren't all that common. I don't know. It all seemed really silly to me. I had sold the house in California myself, with no realtor involved. The title/escrow company handled the entire transaction with no difficulty.

[msanthrope]

6. They aren't that common, and when I used to do them, I wouldn't have made

you go to the bank, I simply would have done a wire transfer. And because I wasn't dealing with a mortgage company... I would have had your HUD-1 prepared a at least a day in advance.

I once did a cash transaction that involved two suitcases of money. That was fun.

[MineralMan]

8. Going to the bank was no problem.

You have to pay for the wire transfer. The people at the bank were very nice. One of the reasons I keep my accounts in Wells Fargo is that there's a branch almost everywhere, and every branch is just like the one I use most often. It doesn't matter where you are, you are just another customer with an account. I still have the same accounts that I had in 2004. They don't seem to be place-oriented at WF. The account isn't at a particular branch. It's just a Wells Fargo account.

I would not ever do such a transaction in actual cash. I think the most money I've ever had in actual cash was $10,000. I took that to a mineral show in Denver one time. There, all transactions were done using $100 bills, oddly enough. That particular show does many millions of dollars in business among all of the dealers who go there, and almost all of it is transacted with $100 bills. There are dealers from all over the world there, as there are at the annual Tucson mineral show. Armed security guards are everywhere, and the actual dealers do business in hotel rooms, for the most part.

It's very interesting. $10,000 is just one bundle of $100 bills. Weird. I saw a few purchases take place where people handed over several of those bundles for one transaction. It made me nervous just carrying one bundle, but it was gone soon enough. I ended up buying an entire room full of specimens on the last day of the show for the entire amount I had. The dealer took the bundle of bills, grabbed his suitcase, checked out of the hotel and caught a cab. I packed everything up and loaded it all in the SUV I had rented and drove back to Minnesota with the specimens, which I then sold on my website. Not long after that, I closed that business down and moved on to something else.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Oh boy,

got to love Wells Fargo and their Customer Service Associates. Had issues with the money from our Home Sale being transferred to our Credit Union in order to pay for our new House. Like you have mentioned,the Kids at Wells could not grasp how someone would pay Cash for a house.

[MineralMan]

9. The bank was fine, actually. It was the kids from the title/escrow

company who didn't get it. I mostly use a very large, central branch of Wells Fargo, although I'll stop in any branch for most things like deposits, ect. There's always a floor manager available who understands your transaction.

On the other hand, I can't say much positive about the last Wells Fargo loan officer I dealt with for a refinance. They all seemed really disorganized, especially with documentation. When you're self-employed, re-financing takes a lot of documentation. I can't tell you how many times I got asked for the same documentation I had already provided. Each time, I had to say, "Uh, I brought that in to you two days ago." "Well, could you give me another copy. I can't find that one."

And then, after the process was over, the guy had the gall to ask me to give him a 5-star rating on a survey, so he could get his bonus. I explained in no uncertain terms why I would not be doing that, and he just didn't seem to understand what the problem was. No bonus for him, although he was a nice enough young man. Just not very professional in his handling of documentation. But, the refi closed OK, so there it is.

[Wellstone ruled]

11. Little info on Wells Mortgage

circa 2003. Their Mortgage processing center used part time High School Kids at their Bloomington Center. Talk about blind leading the blind.

Again must say,some of their Branch Loan Officers just did not have the wherewith all to come in out of the rain.

[meow2u3]

10. They ought to start with the maggot

and then target his russkie mob buddies who bankroll him.