The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has been sued in California in a lawsuit that seeks to help renters find out who really owns their home.
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The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) filed the suit against the U.S. Department of Treasury in the U.S. District Court of California’s Northern District in Oakland. The action is being done under the Freedom of Information Act, requesting records kept by FinCEN inside the Treasury Department.
In mid-July 2019, the CIR requested documents from FinCEN about “beneficial owners” of properties purchased with cash between 2016 and July 2019. On the 29th of the same month, FinCEN sent a letter to CIR denying access to the records. CIR replied asking to appeal the decision in August but had not heard back from FinCEN.
The plaintiff argues that the documents are of great interest, stating in the court filing, “In recent years, there has been an increase in purchases of residential properties by shell companies, which obfuscate the identities of residential real estate owners, shielding important ownership information from public view. This lack of transparency is especially concerning where shell companies not only thwart public accountability but often ‘obscure the illicit origin of their ID’.”
CIR is requesting for an injunction to require FinCEN to provide the documents. Many states in the U.S. allow LLCs to operate in favor of their owners’ anonymity.
Per the lawsuit, “In 2017, FinCEN reported that all-cash purchases by such vehicles accounted for one in four residential real estate purchases, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars nationwide.”
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