# Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market: Transparency International



## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

BNN Bloomberg speaks with James Cohen, executive director at Transparency International Canada, about the anti-corruption group's latest report on the lack of transparency in Canada's housing markets.
”Snow-washing” money from Russian oligarchs, west African elites and unknown owners of private corporations are a top home buyers of Canadian RE. Most transactions missing purchasers or the origin of the funds and being done in cash. 
1.4 million transactions were analyzed.
Basically take your dirty money in Canada and it will be cleaned like a pure white snow, aka “snow washing”.








Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market: Transparency International


BNN Bloomberg speaks with James Cohen, executive director at Transparency International Canada, about the anti-corruption group's latest report on the lack of transparency in Canada's housing markets.




www.bnnbloomberg.ca


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

This was reported some time ago, in 2018 as it was found that Vancouver properties in particular are being used for international money laundering, and key to large criminal gangs.









How Chinese gangs are laundering drug money through Vancouver real estate | Globalnews.ca


It is called the “Vancouver Model” of transnational crime.




globalnews.ca





They buy up properties like condos, and use them to store money. Vancouver and Toronto have tons of completely empty condos... and it is believed that they are used like units of currency, to store and move money between gangsters, crime syndicates, and crooked government-linked people from countries like Russia and China.

Similar things happen in NYC and London, which are famous for having huge amounts of property ownership by Russian elites.

I'm really curious how much upward pressure this puts on the Canadian housing market. There are cranes all over Vancouver and Toronto... how much of this construction is to build more money laundering vehicles for criminals and foreign elites?

Pretty disgusting stuff. The property developers and RE people who do these transactions are also scum of the earth. RE middle men, and agents, simultaneously support criminal enterprises and help make housing unaffordable for everyone.


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

I wonder why governments won’t do anything about it. Unless they are getting a cut and election donations from this.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

^ Because our government is soft.
Has the Canadian government ever stopped anything?

People have been using and abusing and exploiting Canada for decades lol.

Money laundering, safe haven, resources, healthcare, everything. It is no wonder everyone loves Canada.

It is all about the money at the end of the day.


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

This information should be voiced on CBC, CTV, Global etc. If this attracts enough attention governments would be obligated to act.


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## damian13ster (Apr 19, 2021)

Ukrainiandude said:


> I wonder why governments won’t do anything about it. Unless they are getting a cut and election donations from this.


You answered your own question.

Canadian real estate being used as massive money laundering tool with all authorities choosing to turn blind eye is the worst kept secret in the world.


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## Fain (Oct 11, 2009)

Canada's definition of money laundering and China's is very different. Tons of people are classified as money laundering for getting around the $50,000 capital control rule that China has for all of their citizens. Most people(99%) avoiding this rule are technically money laundering as per the CCP's definition but are harmless wealthy successful people who often send their kids overseas. And enforcement of this rule on the individual level in China is extremely low as authorities know what's up. 

I'm okay with the status quo. If the money can be tied to drugs then by all means seize a property. But most(99%) real estate purchase are peaceful people and transactions are legitimate.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

james4beach said:


> This was reported some time ago, in 2018 as it was found that Vancouver properties in particular are being used for international money laundering, and key to large criminal gangs.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 ... don't/didn't Vancouver have an vacant property tax and where is it at? Toronto will be implementing one next year or 2023?


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

Certainly governments have little incentive to put a halt to any RE market shenanigans. This 2018 article provides some illustration:









Taxes and fees make up 26% of new Vancouver condo cost


Ever wondered how much of the cost of a new home is made up of government fees and taxes? According to a new analysis by appraisal and tax expert Paul Sullivan, if you're talking about a new Vancouver apartment, it's more than 26 per cent.




www.vancouverisawesome.com


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## Fain (Oct 11, 2009)

Newspapers get revenue from click-bait sensationalist articles that don't reflect reality. Notice that it's anecdotal comments without stats. They would have you believe that the there's a strong likelihood that the Chinese couple that moved in next door are fentanyl trafficking Triads where in Reality it's extremely fashionable in and in vogue to buy High-end properties in cities like Paris, London, Vancouver and even more fashionable to send your kids overseas to study.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

james4beach said:


> I'm really curious how much upward pressure this puts on the Canadian housing market. There are cranes all over Vancouver and Toronto... how much of this construction is to build more money laundering vehicles for criminals and foreign elites?
> 
> Pretty disgusting stuff. The property developers and RE people who do these transactions are also scum of the earth. RE middle men, and agents, simultaneously support criminal enterprises and help make housing unaffordable for everyone.


If the money is dirty when they bring it over to buy the house, so this doesn't make sense.
I don't see how it gets cleaned, because they wouldn't have been able to buy the house in the first place


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

Apparently it was reported by CBC in 2019. And nothing was done to prevent this.







https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/anti-corruption-group-claims-criminals-laundering-money-through-toronto-real-estate-1.5065777


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

Some older news
A new report by Transparency International Canada has found Toronto’s much larger market faces massive floods of opaque cash, with $28.4 billion invested in Greater Toronto Area housing since 2008, through corporations.








Toronto’s real-estate market risky for money laundering, with $28B in opaque investments: report - National | Globalnews.ca


Toronto's real-estate market is a big target for criminal money launderers because of weak regulations, according to a new report.




globalnews.ca


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

*Diane Francis: Canada's embarrassing money laundering problem *
Self-righteous Liberals have done more to enhance 'snow washing' than any other government.
Now, the global term “snow washing” has been coined to describe how easily dirty money can be washed clean, like the snow, in Canadian real estate.

In 2019, *Canada was embarrassingly outed again by the U.S. State Department, which described Canada as a major global money laundering problem, alongside Afghanistan, the British Virgin Islands, China, Macau and Colombia.* On the heels of that, the Liberal budget said the government would spend $200 million to create a special police task force over five years. But nothing has changed so far.

No one knows the true extent of the illicit money flow, but in 2018, a study out of British Columbia estimated that the total is around $50 billion a year, while Kevin Comeau, a lawyer who works with Transparency International, estimated the total was at least double, or $100 billion annually.

Anecdotally, the *evidence is everywhere*. Condo towers sprout up in Canadian cities that are built or bought by shadowy corporations from China, Kazakhstan or Iran. This “hot money” has single-handedly driven up the cost of housing, mortgages and rents for ordinary Canadians to a level that’s above what most Americans pay.

*By contrast, foreign buyers in the United States are denied mortgages and are heavily scrutinized under the Patriot Act. In hot markets like New York and Miami, condo builders must disclose their buyers to officials. This repels bad actors.*









Diane Francis: Canada's embarrassing money laundering problem


Self-righteous Liberals have done more to enhance 'snow washing' than any other government




financialpost.com


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## Fain (Oct 11, 2009)

Ukrainiandude said:


> *Diane Francis: Canada's embarrassing money laundering problem *
> Self-righteous Liberals have done more to enhance 'snow washing' than any other government.
> Now, the global term “snow washing” has been coined to describe how easily dirty money can be washed clean, like the snow, in Canadian real estate.
> 
> ...


Huge Lack of evidence in the findings or actually findings at all. . . .LOL Equating real-estate ownership by corporation with evidence of criminal behaviour is a HUGE stretch.

Concrete evidence, not this false inferences.


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

Fain said:


> Huge Lack of evidence


The U.S. Department of State has designated Canada a “major money laundering country” where foreign drug-trafficking gangs are exploiting weak law enforcement and soft laws.

why would they do this to the neighbour without evidence ?

it might be a conflict of interest. I wonder what do you do for living?


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## Fain (Oct 11, 2009)

Ukrainiandude said:


> The U.S. Department of State has designated Canada a “major money laundering country” where foreign drug-trafficking gangs are exploiting weak law enforcement and soft laws.
> 
> why would they do this to the neighbour without evidence ?
> 
> it might be a conflict of interest. I wonder what do you do for living?


I work in Capital Markets and own businesses in that field so not really bias or conflict of interest. 

U.S. has done hundreds of actions and made broad statements without evidence. For example, On June 1, 2018, the U.S. imposed a 25 percent tariff on imports of Canadian steel and a 10 percent tariff on imports of Canadian aluminum under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which relates to perceived effect of imports on *U.S. national security*.

Again we'd have to circle back to "Where is the evidence" of all this. The headlines are click-bait and sell newspapers but are very lacking in the evidence section.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Until governments get serious about tracking beneficial interest on RE transactions, billions will continue to flow through RE. There is no incentive by provincial governments in particular to throttle this flow given land transfer taxes, and use of vacancy and speculative taxes to fatten their coffers. The Panama Papers disclosed that all too well. A few US jurisdictions are not lily white either but I forget which ones.


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## Mortgage u/w (Feb 6, 2014)

where there is money, there is corruption.


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

25-year-old internal memo to Canada Revenue Agency predicted foreign money distorting housing market
An internal Canada Revenue Agency audit concluded 25 years ago that wealthy new immigrants were buying up most of the priciest houses taken from a sample in and around Vancouver while declaring poverty on their tax returns. But the report was not made public until a five-year access-to-information battle concluded recently.








25-year-old internal memo to Canada Revenue Agency predicted foreign money distorting housing market


Study could have warned the public about the scale of foreign money parked in Metro Vancouver’s residential real estate, distorting the housing market




www.theglobeandmail.com


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## doctrine (Sep 30, 2011)

Blaming foreign cash is a completely red herring. Canada is maybe going to build _maybe_ 75,000 single family homes this year. And another 150,000 to 175,000 condos and townhouses. And our population is going to grow by 500,000 to 600,000. This is a trend that has been going on for 20+ years. What do you think is going to happen? This just attracts foreign capital because it's a guaranteed money maker.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

People expect too much today.

I grew up in a 1,000 square foot bungalow with 5 kids and mom and dad. We had one bathroom in the house.......LOL.

We managed just fine, but it might be considered cruelty today if each kid doesn't have their own bedroom, bathroom and games room.

Build a massive amount of affordable bungalows and tell people.......buy what you can afford or continue renting.

P.S. I don't know if it had anything to do with our small house, but our family was very close knit even after we all moved on.

You learn to get along to get along, but that is how life usually works.


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

*Half of Canadians under 30 have given up on owning a single-family home: survey








Half of Canadians under 30 have given up on owning a single-family home: survey


The vast majority of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 28 worry they will not be able to afford a home in their city of choice thanks to soaring real-estate prices, with half already giving up on their dream of owning a single-family home, according to a new survey.



www.ctvnews.ca




*


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

Canada is the country of equal opportunities and will “snow wash” your dirty money for you, and will call you an investor. Welcome to Toronto and Vancouver RE market’s.

*Biden administration to target money laundering in US real estate market





Subscribe to read | Financial Times


News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication




www.ft.com




*


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## scorpion_ca (Nov 3, 2014)

Ukrainiandude said:


> Canada is the country of equal opportunities and will “snow wash” your dirty money for you, and will call you an investor. Welcome to Toronto and Vancouver RE market’s.
> 
> *Biden administration to target money laundering in US real estate market
> 
> ...


Is it possible to copy and paste here this article? Don't want to create or subscribe a FT account.


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## Ukrainiandude (Aug 25, 2020)

scorpion_ca said:


> Is it possible to copy and paste here this article? Don't want to create or subscribe a FT account.


The Biden administration has called for public comment on ways to reduce corruption in the US real estate market, as part of a broader effort to stamp out illicit financial activity.

The White House is paying particular attention to all-cash transactions in commercial and residential real estate, which senior officials warned were often conducted through shell companies and used to launder money. 

It has proposed a nationwide expansion of reporting requirements that currently apply to all-cash purchases of residential properties valued at $300,000 or more in 12 metropolitan areas. 

“Given the relative stability of the real estate sector as a store of value, the opacity of the real estate market, and gaps in industry regulation, the US real estate market continues to be used as a vehicle for money laundering and can involve businesses and professions that facilitate — even if unwittingly — acquisitions of real estate in the money laundering process,” the Treasury department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which will be leading the process, said in a statement on Monday.

The bureau’s acting director, Himamauli Das, added: “Addressing this risk will strengthen US national security and help protect the integrity of the US financial system.”

Ahead of crafting any regulation, the government is seeking input on which types of real estate should be subject to scrutiny, the dollar value threshold, the geographic scope of the rules and who should be subject to reporting requirements, among other queries. 

Specific feedback will lead to more targeted reforms and will help to “minimise the burden” on the real estate industry, a senior administration official said.

The call for comment is one facet of a broader strategy unveiled on Monday to more aggressively root out corruption.

*Recommended*
In addition to ramping up scrutiny on those closest to real estate transactions, the Biden administration pledged to designate more intelligence and diplomatic resources to anti-corruption efforts. It also plans to improve co-ordination with foreign governments and across domestic government agencies including the Treasury, state department and the commerce department.

It vowed to focus on high-risk sectors such as construction, transportation and natural resource extraction.

“The deleterious effects of corruption impact nearly all aspects of society,” the White House said in a statement on Monday. “It exacerbates social, political, and economic inequality and polarisation; impedes the ability of states to respond to public health crises or to deliver quality education; degrades the business environment and economic opportunity; drives conflict; and undermines faith in government.”

According to senior officials, the Treasury department will also impose a series of sanctions this week against individuals engaged in what they said were “malign activities” involving corruption, repression, organised crime and human rights abuses.


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