The New York Times recently broke a story about the U.S. Treasury Department’s concern regarding illicit money flowing into the luxury real estate market. In response, a new initiative scrutinizing high-end, full-cash sales in Manhattan and Miami is being enacted. Though full-cash deals are often made by legal shell companies, they often end up concealing the identities of the real purchasers. Going further, a buyer can create new shell companies atop existing ones to make layers from which to hide beneath. The Treasury’s main concern is that these sales are often made with dirty money from worldwide criminal elements.

This will be the first time, according to the Times, that the Federal government will require real estate companies to disclose the names of those behind full-cash transactions. Title insurance companies involved in sales will have to discover the identities of buyers, make copies of driver’s licenses or passports and then pass the individuals’ names to the Treasury Department.