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Can't speak to the US situation, but here in Canada there are anti-money laundering "know your client" rules for securities brokers - and securities are far mor

Can't speak to the US situation, but here in Canada there are anti-money laundering "know your client" rules for securities brokers - and securities are far more regulated in the US than Canada (Canada has no equivalent of the SEC). You can't just buy millions of dollars of publicly-traded securities through an anonymous shell corporation. No such rules exist for housing that is purchased outright and not financed. These people don't want an investment, per se. They need to store the money, but also to hide it. If the beneficial ownership of the assets purchased with the money is obscured, they can't be clawed back if they are arrested in China and charged with stealing that money in the first place.

jacquesm 9y ago
It may be a bit different than outright stealing. Many Chinese businesses make money in a foreign currency outside of China. Instead of bringing the money in and then finding that they can't re-export it they leave it abroad and use it to buy real estate and pretty much anything else they can get their hands on. This makes for a fairly large but hidden component of the trade imbalance. The only other way to get funds > $50K out of China is through getting 'permission' which equates giving the right people a cut, or maybe you'll find your money confiscated. Source: did some business with the Chinese well in excess of that $50k.