I once knew a girl whose dad owns a real estate investment firm that currently has over $5.5 billion of assets… he made a bid for the Empire State Building in 2013… I don’t want to say the name of the firm on here for some reason…
She told me that a lot of “money laundering” goes on.
Her dad got rich by starting a clothing company before he started investing in real estate.
Do you think she was talking about hiding illegal funds? Or was she more likely talking about embezzlement from her dad’s employees? I mean… why would someone who made hundreds of millions per year want MORE and risk being arrested?
I asked her to be more detailed and she said she didn’t know.
Her dad has been described as a “nice guy,” and a “pillar of the community,” and he appears on CNBC and Bloomberg talking about New York City real estate. He gives money to charities, etc.
I think she was talking about embezzlement. What do you think? I’ll tell you the name of the firm in private message if you really care. The guy is famous in certain circles.
Yea but this is real life. I don’t know if she was telling me her dad is a criminal or that his employees steal from him. She was only 19. It’s a very large firm. I’ll tell you in private if you care.
Why would someone who made hundreds of millions selling clothes, then hundred of millions per year renting commercial real estate risk their freedom like that when he has 4 kids? It doesn’t make sense.
But I don’t think anyone on this forum could really answer this question.
Money laundering basically requires an illegal business creating a large amount of illegal cash. It is more likely your friend is referring to embezzlement as with any business that receives cash it is very tempting for someone to pocket some money instead of claim and post it on the books.
This is usually a lower level in the trenches problem as a lot of prospective tenants of some types of commercial real estate will pay their rent / lease, deposit and other fees in cash. It is also not unusual for a ground level manager to make deals with friends who provide basic repairs and maintenance to provide additional payment hours or negotiate a kick back for services performed.
This would be at the properties town or city level management.
What do I think? You likely have too much time on your hands to be requesting opinions about someone we do not know.
Laundering money is a dishonor…stay away from dishonor…otherwise someone will be referencing you in a forum, who also has too much time on their hands.
I think she was talking about embezzlement. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Why would someone who makes hundreds of millions per year on rental income seek to align with criminals? There’s no way that’s what she meant.