Ferwerda, Joras; Unger, Brigitte --- "Detecting money laundering in the real estate sector" [2013] ELECD 926; in Unger, Brigitte; van der Linde, Daan (eds), "Research Handbook on Money Laundering" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 268

Book Title: Research Handbook on Money Laundering

Editor(s): Unger, Brigitte; van der Linde, Daan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857933997

Section: Chapter 21

Section Title: Detecting money laundering in the real estate sector

Author(s): Ferwerda, Joras; Unger, Brigitte

Number of pages: 15

Abstract/Description:

Estimations of the level of money laundering reach up to 2 to 5 per cent of worldGDP, raising the question where does all this money go. A potential answer lies within the real estate sector, which is large enough to absorb a large part of this money and prone to money laundering because of features such as the heterogeneity of buildings, the non-transparency in the market and possibilities for hiding the true owner. So far, however, no systematic study has been conducted on the importance and frequency of money laundering in the real estate sector. This study tries to use the information known to authorities to systematically identify and analyse money laundering in this sector. Though the data refer to the Netherlands only, the method can be used for other countries as well. This chapter is organized as follows: After describing why the real estate sector is prone to money laundering, we explain our research method and present a list of seventeen indicators that we use to find the real estate objects that are most likely related to money laundering.