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Comment by lazyant | Hacker News Reader

or you can just bring a bag of cash to buy a condo in NYC https://theweek.com/articles/736313/how-foreign-investors-la...

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Vancouver is also more than happy to help you out https://www.sanctions.io/blog/the-vancouver-model-of-money-l...

There have been changes in recent years that complicate this model because you are now required to register the beneficial (meaning the de facto, not de jure) owner of real property in BC. There was also an investigation into the casinos which culminated in the Dirty Money report [0]. Quite a few reforms came about as a result of that, chief among them that a source of funds declaration is required on buy-ins of $10,000 or more and mandatory identity verification is required on transactions of $3,000 or more.

> At B.C. casinos, BCLC requires anyone buying-in with cash, a bank draft, or a certified cheque of $10,000 or more in a 24-hour period to complete a source of funds declaration and provide proof of where the money came from. Suspicious transactions in B.C. casinos have declined since this policy was introduced. Additionally, BCLC requires casinos to verify people’s identities for all buy-ins of $3,000 or more in a single transaction. [1]

[0]: https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/Gaming_Final_Report.pdf

[1]: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/justice/anti-money-launde...

Spreading misinformation hurts everyone.

At least Germany recently changed their laws (initiated by the Green Party) that prevents buying real estate with cash. But this has been a money laundering practice for the mob for decades.

Australia just implemented laws where you have to show where the money came from when buying property, gold, and some other stuff with cash.

Are you referring to Australia's AML/CTF Tranche 2 reforms? If so, these actually come into effect on 1 July 2026.

You’re forced to take out a bank loan in Germany if you want to buy property?

Nope, but you can’t buy property with literal cash, crypto, or precious metals anymore. In Germany people use SEPA payments as the primary means to transfer money, and that is the intended way to handle big transactions.

I believe there are numerous ways to transfer money without using physical bills; disallowing cash for large purchases doesn't imply a loan. Personal or certified Cheque, money order , wire, interac / email transfer are some of the options, I'm sure there are others.

Note, all other criticisms about privacy still apply, thisbis where cash is king of course. But it's not forcing loans :-)

It used to be that you only had to declare the actual owner of a LLC purchasing a property if the value at sale was over, IIRC, $1.5 million. In NYC that's a typical 1-2 bedroom apartment.

They (Treasury Dept?) recently lowered that to $300K.

Reminds me of the line from an old NPR podcast:

"If you are not a US citizen, the US is one of the best countries for money laundering due to our strong privacy and banking laws."

The Brazilian media reported that the Bolsonaro family bought at least 51 properties with cash.

https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2022/0...

Paying for things in cash is banned over a certain price (usually $10k) in some parts of the world.

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