Inside NYC real estate’s web of money laundering

Manhattan's commercial RE market is increasingly a ground zero for shady cash

The Chetrits’ Flatotel condo project on 52nd Street
The Chetrits’ Flatotel condo project on 52nd Street

From the October issue:  In 2012, Joseph Chetrit, a Moroccan real estate investor known for his New York City developments, allegedly flew to Geneva to meet Nicolas Bourg, a Belgium-based real estate fund manager, to talk about raising equity for several new projects

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Bourg was representing an investment fund backed with money allegedly stolen by two Kazakhstani investors — Viktor Khrapunov, the former mayor of Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, and Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former chairman of the country’s BTA Bank. The two were eager to place their money in the U.S., and New York City seemed like a good bet for unloading a serious amount of cash quickly. [more]

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