Over one-fifth of President Trump's condos sold in America were purchased in transactions that have the characteristics of possible money laundering, BuzzFeed News reports. Over 1,300 of condominiums developed by Trump or licensed under his name "were bought not by people but by shell companies, and ... the purchases were made without a mortgage, avoiding inquiries from lenders," BuzzFeed News writes. The Treasury Department has flagged such sales as telltale signs of potential money laundering schemes, although not all such sales are necessarily indicators of illegal activity.
In one particularly startling case, though, the Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium in Manhattan, where Trump is 18 percent owner, made more than three-quarters of its sales to shell companies that paid in cash. BuzzFeed News is careful to note, however, that their reporting also "examined non-Trump buildings in Manhattan and South Florida and found that roughly the same percentage of units were sold to shell companies in all-cash transactions as in Trump buildings."
In 2015, a New York Times investigation estimated that "nearly half of the most expensive residential properties in the United States are now purchased anonymously through shell companies." However, as some have pointed out, those other properties notably do not have the name of the president of the United States attached to them.
This is not the first time purchases at Trump developed or licensed condos have raised suspicions. Former Panamanian financial crimes prosecutor Mauricio Ceballos told NBC News and Reuters that the Trump Ocean Club in Panama City is "a vehicle for money laundering." Writing for The Week, Paul Waldman observes that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has "made a point of hiring a number of lawyers for his team who have expertise in money laundering and other financial crimes." Mueller is reportedly looking into "Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings," Bloomberg News writes.
Read more about Trump property sales at BuzzFeed News.