![]() ![]() One buyer was headquartered at the same address as more than 200 other offshore companies, according to the Panama Papers. “That’s why concealed buyer identities, all-cash sales, hidden sources of private loan money, overpaying for condos and rapid repayment of loans are all considered red flags for money laundering,” the report says.Īt Champlain South and North Towers, “Buyers purchased units through shell companies located in countries such as Panama and the Netherlands Antilles, both notorious for laundering drug money through anonymous corporations. Purchasing real estate with drug money was an effective means of hiding its source by running it through anonymous corporations and making regular mortgage payments. The report says, “Thousands of pages of deed and mortgage documents reveal that within 24 months of opening, at least 62 sales exceeding $9.5 million showed classic signs of money laundering.” None of this slowed down the development of the project as the drug money flowed in. The architect’s license had been suspended in Florida after sign structures he designed collapsed during Hurricane Betsy in 1965.” His lawyer, Stanley Levine, had been indicted for attempting to bribe a local official in Florida on an earlier project and one building contractor hired to work on the Champlain South project later was forced to surrender his license after numerous infractions. The reports states, “Reiber faced tax trouble in Canada. Reiber, in particular, had a history of financial and legal troubles. The USA Today report says that the Surfside beachfront property was acquired by Nathan Reiber and his partners Nathan and Isadore Goldlist, all of whom were from Canada, and construction began in 1979 as the first of three planned towers. We could buy any building inspector at any given moment. ![]() Valdes went on, “You wanted to put up real estate as quickly as possible because the money was flowing. So, how do you rush to fulfill the demand? You cut corners. Valdes said, “The era we’re talking about is when Miami suddenly came out of the ashes. The US A Today interviewed Jorge Valdes, who was “a chief money launderer for the Medellin Cartel” and “helped build dozens of homes, apartment complexes, and high rises in the Miami region” but “was not involved in Champlain South.” The final victim was identified on July 26. After an initial rescue operation failed to locate any survivors, a recovery effort was mounted to search through the rubble for the remains of all those who perished in the catastrophe. on June 24, when the northeast section fell down and destroyed half the units in the complex. The Champlain Tower South high-rise condominium building suffered a partial progressive collapse that lasted just 12 seconds at 1:25 a.m. Residents noted flooding in the garage in 1981, the year the tower opened.” The report says, “Money laundering also might have meant that some early buyers weren’t living in the condo building or concerned with its long-term maintenance.” This fact is significant because the USA Today investigation has revealed that evidence of the building’s decay had emerged earlier and “was ignored longer than previously known. In addition to faulty construction of the first high-rise condo in the small town of Surfside, the laundering of drug money-rampant in the Miami area during the boom in beachfront high-rise construction when there were no laws against the practice for hiding illicit funds-was often used to bribe government building officials. The report says that such schemes are often accompanied by “cutting corners on construction,” and, “even before developers sold off the 136 condominiums to their first owners, the construction had been botched and the building had been set on a course to rot from the foundation up.” Rescue personnel work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo, Friday, June 25, 2021, in Surfside
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