The lawyer, a specialist in money laundering, asked the agents to fill out their clients' due diligence form, because in that document they could detect anomalies and alerts about illegalities.
SANTO DOMINGO.- Real estate agents must safeguard all client documentation for up to ten years, which will serve as support for any eventuality that may arise in the future.
Expert Loraine Durán, who heads the money laundering division at the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII), recommends that real estate brokers file these supporting documents, which will help them back up their arguments and relieve themselves of responsibility before regulatory bodies should any problems arise.
He reiterated that they must keep records of transactions so that in the future they have all the necessary documents in case the DGII requires them, and can comply with what the sector regulations demand.
He asked representatives of real estate agencies to remain vigilant in order to help that body prevent and mitigate money laundering, in one of the sectors where cases of this nature are most prevalent.
The lawyer, a specialist in money laundering, asked the agents to fill out their clients' due diligence form, because in that document they could detect anomalies and alerts about illegalities.
Duran expressed his views while participating in the Webinar “Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism in the Dominican Republic”, organized by the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies (AEI), in which hundreds of representatives from the sector participated.
He stated that there are warning signs, citing cases where it is not possible to substantiate investments, "a client who is going to buy a property and wants to put it in the name of a third party without having any connection with it," he explained.
He noted that the legal limit for real estate purchase transactions is US$15,000, clarifying that those who pay below that amount will not be subject to investigation if they are found to be high-risk.
“It’s not that if they pay above that amount they will necessarily be investigated; suspicious transactions can be up to two thousand dollars, as long as the client has parameters suggestive of money laundering, they will be investigated,” he explained.
She reiterated that real estate agents are among the first line of professionals who can identify suspicious cases, because there are general patterns that can reveal them, “for example, if the profile of the client who wants to buy, the documentation they provide, doesn't match the price they want. You are the ones who receive the client, deal with them, therefore you can notice things on the street that the regulator can't see from their desk,” the expert pointed out.
AEI and its training cycle
The seminar is part of the training program carried out by the AEI, aimed at real estate agents, to whom the Association constantly provides courses and various educational sessions, in order to strengthen the practice of real estate in the country.
