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Long A New York Real Estate Mainstay, LLCs Lose Their Anonymity
Hat tip, a commenter at Joe.My.God. I'll dig up that link.
Manhattan Borough President: Seize Their Penthouses
February 28, 2022
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February 28, 2022
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band💋 • 19 minutes ago • edited
Much easier said than done, unfortunately. Any sensible oligarch would've used an anonymous LLC to purchase pricey NYC real estate. Congress didn't ban the practice — despite Trump's veto — until January of last year.
https://gothamist.com/news/long-new-york-real-estate-mainstay-llcs-lose-their-anonymity
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Long A New York Real Estate Mainstay, LLCs Lose Their Anonymity
BY ILYA MARRITZ
PUBLISHED JANUARY 8, 2021
On January 1st, Congress passed a measure to end the secrecy around shell companies that has fueled a boom in high-priced New York condominiums. The new law could discourage the flow of international capital into Manhattan real estate, while giving investigators powerful new tools to detect money laundering and other financial crimes.
The National Defense Authorization Act, passed over a veto by President Donald Trump, empowers the Treasury Department to create and maintain a registry of the “beneficial” or true owners of most businesses created in the United States, including limited liability companies. LLCs are a popular vehicle for purchasing real estate, in part due to the secrecy they confer.
{snip}
It is an irony that a law stripping shell companies of their anonymity should be passed in the final days of the Trump administration, over Trump’s veto.
Trump Tower was one of the first Manhattan buildings to sell large numbers of units to anonymous LLCs. Buzzfeed reported in 2018 that more than 1,300 units in Trump buildings had been sold to unnamed buyers. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort was convicted in 2018 of failing to report foreign income to the IRS — money he used to purchase a Brooklyn townhouse and a downtown Manhattan apartment. And when Trump needed to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, his then-ally Michael Cohen arranged the payment through a Delaware LLC: Essential Consultants.
BY ILYA MARRITZ
PUBLISHED JANUARY 8, 2021
On January 1st, Congress passed a measure to end the secrecy around shell companies that has fueled a boom in high-priced New York condominiums. The new law could discourage the flow of international capital into Manhattan real estate, while giving investigators powerful new tools to detect money laundering and other financial crimes.
The National Defense Authorization Act, passed over a veto by President Donald Trump, empowers the Treasury Department to create and maintain a registry of the “beneficial” or true owners of most businesses created in the United States, including limited liability companies. LLCs are a popular vehicle for purchasing real estate, in part due to the secrecy they confer.
{snip}
It is an irony that a law stripping shell companies of their anonymity should be passed in the final days of the Trump administration, over Trump’s veto.
Trump Tower was one of the first Manhattan buildings to sell large numbers of units to anonymous LLCs. Buzzfeed reported in 2018 that more than 1,300 units in Trump buildings had been sold to unnamed buyers. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort was convicted in 2018 of failing to report foreign income to the IRS — money he used to purchase a Brooklyn townhouse and a downtown Manhattan apartment. And when Trump needed to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, his then-ally Michael Cohen arranged the payment through a Delaware LLC: Essential Consultants.