rant · moment 7 of 10
NYC Real Estate as a Money-Laundering Slush Fund
from Stop Being A Pig · #49
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
10 minDrawing on research for his bus tour show, Tim details how Manhattan luxury real estate (average condo $2.1 million) is dominated by shell companies hiding foreign oligarchs, war criminals, and tycoons, using the Time Warner Center as an example, and discusses signs of a coming commercial real estate slowdown and Hudson Yards development.
- 44:23Manhattan's average condo costs 2.1 million dollars; luxury units average 9.5 million.
- 45:16Most luxury apartments are bought through shell corporations to disguise ownership for tax reasons or legal issues.
- 45:45Time Warner Center resident Anil Agarwal, a mining tycoon who poisoned a river in Zambia, illustrates the city's appeal to international criminals.
- 46:12Post-Giuliani New York is a giant money-laundering operation; 129 of 192 units at Time Warner Center are shell-company owned.
- 47:02These foreign oligarchs and war criminals aren't fleeing to New York—they're stashing capital there.
- 47:41Luxury real estate has driven up prices throughout the city, pricing out residents making six figures and forcing people to Brooklyn, Queens, or out of state.
- 48:1990 billion dollars in commercial mortgage-backed securities are coming due this year, underwritten liberally during the subprime lending era.
- 49:28New York has seen record-breaking construction over the last six years—hotels, condos, and massive projects like Hudson Yards.
- 50:22Real estate brokers openly admit they don't know where the money comes from and don't care—they're making money off the city becoming a slush fund.
- 51:23Wealthy criminals will never lose all their money; the system is institutionalized criminality masquerading as capitalism, leaving working people to bear the burden.
Manhattan real estateshell corporationsFederal ReserveDonald TrumpBloombergTime Warner CenterHudson YardsCIAPoint72Ron Paul