Instructions: Based on the theories you have learnt, write a two-page (double spaced) paper on the case provided to you. It will help you evaluate your knowledge of the concepts you are expected to have learnt at the end of this module. It will help you describe theories and apply them to real life situations. Your paper should discuss the elements of crime and recognize the origins of criminal behavior depicted in this case. Using two different views of crime and two different explanations of crime in the context of different criminological schools of thought, explain what crimes Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was referring to as ‘dirty money”. Article: In a move with significant implications for the U.S. housing market, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is seeking to take a Treasury Department crackdown on dirty money in luxury real estate and expand it from a few high-priced enclaves to the entire nation. Rubio says his proposal is an attempt to root out criminals who use illicit funds and anonymous shell companies to buy homes — a form of money laundering that hides the cash’s tainted origin from law enforcement and banks. The widespread practice enables terrorism, sex trafficking,corruption, and drug dealing by providing an outlet for dirty cash, according to transparency advocates. Through an amendment to an unrelated major spending bill, Rubio will ask Treasury to study whether government regulators should force shell companies that buy homes priced at $300,000 or more in cash nationwide to disclose their owners. That could be a figure as high as 10 percent of the nation’s real-estate deals. A similar reporting requirement affecting transactions priced at $1 million or more has already had a chilling effect on all-cash corporate sales in Miami-Dade County, which has been under Treasury’s microscope since 2016.“Shell companies involved in shady activities are a big problem, especially throughout South Florida,” Rubio said in a statement to McClatchy and the Miami Herald. “With this provision, a study would be conducted to look at requiring all shell companies that make cash transactions, regardless of their area, to disclose their identities.” The amendment builds on a previous Treasury disclosure order that applied only to certain markets, including South Florida. That order — which forced shell companies buying homes with cash to reveal their true owners to the government — has been in place in some areas since March 2016 at various price points. Its effects were immediate and stunning. As soon as the order took hold, shell companies buying homes with cash dropped off the map, a recent study by academic economists found. In Miami- Dade, the number of corporate cash sales plummeted 95 percent, although a strong overall market suggests creative buyers found ways to circumvent the rules, researchers said. Before the crackdown, corporate cash sales accounted for roughly a third of home-sale volume in Miami-Dade, which is ...

1. Instructions:
Based on the theories you have learnt, write a two-page (double
spaced) paper on the case provided to you. It will help you
evaluate your knowledge of the concepts you are expected to
have learnt at the end of this module. It will help you describe
theories and apply them to real life situations.
Your paper should discuss the elements of crime and recognize
the origins of criminal behavior depicted in this case. Using two
different views of crime and two different explanations of crime
in the context of different criminological schools of thought,
explain what crimes Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was
referring to as ‘dirty money”.
Article:
In a move with significant implications for the U.S. housing
market, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is seeking to take
a Treasury Department crackdown on dirty money in luxury real
estate and expand it from a few high-priced enclaves to the
entire nation.
Rubio says his proposal is an attempt to root out criminals who
use illicit funds and anonymous shell companies to buy homes
— a form of money laundering that hides the cash’s tainted
origin from law enforcement and banks. The widespread
practice enables terrorism, sex trafficking,corruption, and drug
dealing by providing an outlet for dirty cash, according to
transparency advocates.
Through an amendment to an unrelated major spending bill,
Rubio will ask Treasury to study whether government regulators
should force shell companies that buy homes priced at $300,000

2. or more in cash nationwide to disclose their owners. That could
be a figure as high as 10 percent of the nation’s real-estate
deals.
A similar reporting requirement affecting transactions priced at
$1 million or more has already had a chilling effect on all -cash
corporate sales in Miami-Dade County, which has been under
Treasury’s microscope since 2016.“Shell companies involved in
shady activities are a big problem, especially throughout South
Florida,” Rubio said in a statement to McClatchy and the Miami
Herald. “With this provision, a study would be conducted to
look at requiring all shell companies that make cash
transactions, regardless of their area, to disclose their
identities.”
The amendment builds on a previous Treasury disclosure order
that applied only to certain markets, including South Florida.
That order — which forced shell companies buying homes with
cash to reveal their true owners to the government — has been
in place in some areas since March 2016 at various price points.
Its effects were immediate and stunning. As soon as the order
took hold, shell companies buying homes with cash dropped off
the map, a recent study by academic economists found. In
Miami- Dade, the number of corporate cash sales plummeted 95
percent, although a strong overall market suggests creative
buyers found ways to circumvent the rules, researchers said.
Before the crackdown, corporate cash sales accounted for
roughly a third of home-sale volume in Miami-Dade, which is
popular with foreign investors.
The amendment has the support of the top Democrat on the
Senate Finance Committee, Oregon’s Ron Wyden, as well as
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. Both have

3. tried to widen disclosure of true owners of shell companies,
which can be listed in the names of lawyers, accountants, and
other fronts. The lack of corporate transparency frustrates law -
enforcement officials, who say it stymies their investigations.
A vote is expected on the overall bill as soon as this week,
Rubio’s office said.
The powerful real-estate industry has fought attempts from the
government to have it act as a watchdog against money
laundering, as banks, precious-metals dealers, money-service
businesses, and other financial institutions are required to do.
Many Realtors and developers say their clients are simpl y
wealthy buyers seeking privacy, not criminals.
But over the past two years, Treasury has moved with force into
what had been a largely unregulated sector of the U.S. financial
system. Starting in Miami-Dade County and Manhattan two
years ago, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
(FinCEN) began requiring anonymous shell companies to
disclose their true owners when they bought pricey homes with
cash.
The temporary directives — called “geographic targeting
orders” or GTOs — were later expanded to other housing
markets in Florida, New York, Texas, California, and Hawaii
where foreign and anonymous investors are gobbling up real
estate and driving up prices. The rules require title agents to
identify the owners of shell companies buying homes with cash
and disclose their names to the federal government.
Offshore corporations have one main purpose - to create
anonymity. Recently leaked documents reveal that some of
these shell companies, cloaked in secrecy, provide cover for
dictators, politicians and tax evaders.

4. By Sohail Al-Jamea and Ali Rizvi
“The GTOs are working, and it’s time they were expanded.
Laundering money through real estate isn’t new, but [what is
new is] an effective approach to combat dirty money,” said
Clark Gascoigne, deputy director of the Financial
Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition, a
watchdog nonprofit.
Rubio’s proposal to take the project national, Gascoigne added,
“sends a strong message that we’re serious about protecting the
U.S. financial system, the real-estate market, and communities
across the country.”
Stephen Hudak, a spokesman for FinCEN, declined to comment.
Cracking down
The Rubio amendment asks Treasury to consider expanding the
FinCEN directive to include all cash real-estate transactions
over $300,000 anywhere in the United States.
It would give Treasury 180 days to submit a study to Congress
providing details about the data that has been collected by
FinCEN since 2016 and how it is being used. The agency is also
being asked to determine if it needs more authority to combat
money laundering and whether expanding the targeting order
would be of use. In addition, FinCEN is asked if a registry of
company owners — something supported by a bipartisan cast of
federal legislators — would help authorities fight money
laundering, tax evasion, election fraud, and other illegal
activities.
Previously, the FinCEN disclosure requirement kicked in for

5. corporate cash sales that were priced at $3 million or higher in
New York City, $1 million or higher in Miami-Dade, Broward,
and Palm Beach, and at different price points in other states. In
May, FinCEN enacted a new directive that secretly lowered the
number to $300,000 in all GTO areas. Sources familiar with the
agency’s thinking say the new order was kept confidential
because regulators don’t want to give money launderers a road
map for structuring their transactions to avoid reporting.
Rubio’s amendment would start at that lower price point,
covering a major chunk of home sales nationwide. Last year, the
median U.S. home sold for a price of $247,200, according to the
National Association of Realtors.
A cash transaction is one in which there is no mortgage and the
property is purchased outright. Cash doesn’t just mean stacks of
greenbacks; it also includes such financial instruments as wire
transfers, checks, and money orders. Unlike mortgages, cash
deals don’t involve heavy scrutiny from banks, which can
identify potential money laundering and file suspicious-activity
reports to the feds.
The 2016 publication of the Panama Papers spotlighted how
anonymous shell companies in faraway tax havens were used to
camouflage property purchases in the United States by
politicians, drug traffickers, and financial fraudsters. Housing
analysts argue that the flow of anonymous money is driving up
prices.
“There’s hardly a metropolitan area in the country that is not
experiencing a real public-policy issue regarding affordable
housing,” said Ned Murray, a housing expert and associate
director of Florida International University’s Metropolitan
Center. “The whole focus of the real-estate industry is on ...

6. supplying homes for wealthy investors that we don’t know much
about. It really is a factor for prices and supply.”
Much of the world has responded to the threat of corruption in
real estate by requiring greater ownership disclosure. The
United States has done relatively less, although Rubio’s
amendment could help close the gap.
Those operating in the shadows of the real-estate market
certainly seem aware of the Treasury disclosure requirements —
and are working to get around them.
Take Carmelo Urdaneta Aqui, who is the former legal counsel
to the Venezuelan Ministry of Oil and Mining. He was recently
among those charged in a federal $1.2 billion money-laundering
case involving funds stolen from Venezuela’s state oil company.
When Urdaneta prepared to close on a brand-new, $5.3 million
condo at the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach, he
was informed by paperwork from the developer that “taking title
[to the unit] under a company or trust may trigger FinCEN
reporting requirements,” according to a federal indictment filed
last week. He was worried enough about the disclosure that he
discussed how to avoid it with a government informant.
Ultimately, Urdaneta set up a company in his wife’s name to do
the deal, prosecutors allege.
Theories you can use (use 2):
good theory
consensus theories
micro theories

7. unit theories
process theories
rational choice theories
cognitive theory
rounded labeling theory
power-control theory