Money laundering the catalyst behind Miami's booming condo rise

Money laundering the catalyst behind Miami's booming condo rise. 

Call me a cynic, but there is no other way to describe what is happening in downtown Miami today.  I was led to believe, and part of me still does, that there are those in far away lands that are victims of politics and booming economics that come to Miami to buy condos as investments.  Most notably these countries include Israel, Brazil, Venezuela, and Canada.  The idea is that buyers in these economically sound countries want to take advantage of America's struggling economy and housing market. 

But the cynic in me has another theory.  And I do not attribute this to all buyers from out of the country, but there has to be a sizable amount who buy in Miami simply to launder money.  This is not a new theory by the way.  In the past drug dealers from South America would purchase condos in South Florida and then flip them to launder their money.  It is quite easy actually. 

I can only speculate on what some of these buyers are doing today, but when you have thousands of foreign buyers coming to South Florida and buying condos that are priced in the millions of dollars and they are paying cash for them it does have to raise a red flag.  These buyers set up corporations in the US and fund their purchases via offshore banks.  All of this makes the entire transaction difficult to track.  Do we ask questions as realtors?  Probably not.  But we should because in the end this house of cards is going to all come tumbling down if I am right.