Las razones para desconfiar de los tratamientos milagrosos con células madre

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May 20, 2018
By Natalia Martin Cantero

Uno de los campos científicos más prometedores, el de la investigación con
células madre, es también terreno abonado para los timos. Cientos de empresas prometen tratamientos contra todo tipo de enfermedades que no cuentan con el visto bueno de la FDA.

Doris Tyler es una mujer de Florida que quedó ciega tras someterse a un procedimiento con células madre no aprobado por la FDA.

Las falsas promesas sobre los tratamientos de células madre pueden tener consecuencias mucho más graves que despojar al paciente de su dinero. En el episodio más reciente de su cruzada contra las clínicas que ofertan tratamientos a partir de esas células, la Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos (FDA) emprenderá acciones legales para impedir la actividad de dos de los centros más prominentes del país: el US Stem Cell con sede en Sunrise, Florida, y el California Stem Cell Treatment Center, con sedes en Beverly Hills y Rancho Mirage.

Los tratamientos que ofrecen estas clínicas –desde curas al cáncer a enfermedades del corazón– podrían suponer un riesgo para la salud, según la FDA.

Una investigación publicada recientemente sobre 368 webs de centros que ofrecen combinaciones de tratamientos con células madre con “medicina alternativa y complementaria” reveló que solamente el 31% de los sitios menciona si la intervención cuenta con el visto bueno de las autoridades sanitarias.

Solo un 19% de los sitios especifica que hay pruebas limitadas de la validez intervención, y únicamente el 25% menciona los riesgos generales de la investigación. El imperio en expansión de estas clínicas promete curas para todo. Desde diabetes a asma, esclerosis múltiple, artritis o incluso una vacuna contra el cáncer.

“Muchas clínicas parecen estar basándose en pseudociencia, lo que puede ofuscar seriamente el discurso público, engañar a la población y dificultar el discernimiento entre la ciencia real y la mercadotecnia”, concluye el estudio. “La publicidad sobre terapias con células madre no probadas tiene el potencial de dañar a los pacientes y a la reputación de la ciencia”, añade.

¿Qué son las células madre?
Las células madre son un tipo particular de célula que se encuentra en el cuerpo humano (como en cualquier otro organismo pluricelular) sobre todo en la sangre y en la médula espinal. Su función es regenerar órganos y otras células a medida que envejecemos, y son fundamentales a la hora de ayudar al cuerpo a recuperarse de lesiones. Hay varios tipos de células madre, con diferentes características. Las que proceden de embriones humanos pueden convertirse en cualquier tipo de célula, y en teoría reparar cualquier órgano o tejido en el cuerpo humano. Por el contrario, las células madre “adultas” por
así decir solo pueden convertirse en el tipo de tejido del que proceden, según explica a Univisión Noticias Morton Tavel, profesor de medicina retirado de la Universidad de Indiana y autor de un libro sobre mitos y bulos en salud.

¿Cuáles son los usos probados con las terapias con células madre?
Morton señala que, mientras que el acceso a las células de embriones está regulado por las autoridades federales, la extracción de las otras células madre (las que proceden del cuerpo del propio paciente) está mucho menos reglada. Por esta razón, se han usado de manera indiscriminada. “De hecho, los tratamientos con células madre están ampliamente aceptados solo para dos situaciones: dolencias relacionadas con la sangre –incluidas leucemia y algunas formas de anemia– y en ciertos tipos de lesiones por quemaduras”, señala. En el futuro, cree Morton, la regulación en torno a las células madre podría ser similar a la que existe con los medicamentos con receta.

Morton indica que incluso clínicas muy reconocidas han sido acusadas de
exagerar sus promesas en algún momento. Por eso, antes de que consideres exponerte a un tratamiento con células madre de cualquier tipo es fundamental informarse todo lo que sea posible, preferiblemente con un experto en este campo con licencia médica, recomienda el profesor.

Por otro lado, los tratamientos experimentales con células madre han resultado prometedores en muchos campos, como osteoporosis o lesiones deportivas, y la FDA está evaluando su aprobación.

Florida es uno de los destinos predilectos de pacientes desesperados en la búsqueda de tratamientos que no han sido aprobados. El Dr. Burton Feinerman, en la imagen, es un pediatra que ha ofrecido terapias con células madre en varias clínicas de Florida durante la última década, cuya efectividad ha sido puesta en duda.

¿Qué enfermedades podrían curarse o prevenirse en el futuro utilizando estas terapias?

Ira Pastor, presidente de una firma de medicina regenerativa, señala que las terapias serán de gran utilidad en patologías en las que se producen dinámicas de degeneración celular, como el Alzheimer o el Parkinson.

La degeneración macular por envejecimiento (el trastorno ocular) es uno de los objetivos más prometedores. Todavía falta mucho tiempo, no obstante, para que podamos disponer de tratamientos seguros y efectivos para estos problemas. Una de las clínicas intervenidas esta semana por la FDA está acusada de dejar ciegos a varios clientes con tratamientos para aliviar la degeneración macular.

¿Qué señales deben hacerte sospechar?
El abogado experto en legislación relacionada con alimentos y medicamentos Andrew Ittleman señala a Univision Noticias que hay que sospechar de las clínicas que ofrecen procedimientos no aprobados procedentes de fuentes que no son el paciente mismo, como la membrana amniótica o el cordón umbilical. Muchos de estos tratamientos, señala Ittleman, se ofertan a ancianos y se venden como poco menos que milagrosos. Sin embargo, “muchas investigaciones muestran que no contienen células madre en absoluto. Este es un problema creciente, y un estado (Dakota del norte) ya lo está investigando. Mi expectativa es que otros estados hagan lo mismo”.

Pastor, por su parte, recomienda estar alerta con esas “clínicas que aseguran curarlo todo”, de forma indiscriminada, con células madre.

¿Qué riesgos representan las clínicas que utilizan tratamientos no aprobados para los pacientes?
Ittleman indica que los riesgos son los mismos que con clínicas de otro tipo: los pacientes pueden resultar lesionados, o recibir tratamientos que no funcionan. “Dada la proliferación de practicantes que no son médicos ofreciendo terapias con células madre en sus consultas, estos riesgos pueden estar más concentrados” con este tipo de tratamientos. Pastor alude a problemas financieros: “los pacientes perderán un montón de dinero”, apunta.

¿Debería involucrarse más el gobierno con las pruebas clínicas?
La FDA está implicada en la regulación de las pruebas clínicas y está haciendo
un gran trabajo asegurándose de que los productos que aprueba son seguros y efectivos, señala Ittleman. “Desafortunadamente, en el entorno de las células madre, la línea que separa los procedimientos médicos de la fabricación de productos puede ser muy tenue”. Esto significa que mientras que los médicos saben cómo llevar a cabo un estudio diseñado para mejorar un procedimiento médico, muchos saben muy poco sobre cómo regula la FDA las pruebas clínicas.

How to Answer Tough Law School Interview Questions

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May 10, 2018
By Ilana Kowarski

In law school interviews, it’s important to explain why you’re a strong candidate, experts say.

Trial lawyers and appellate lawyers are often asked questions by judges who expect an immediate response. These attorneys cannot waver over what to say; they must improvise and come up with a compelling argument.

Some of the most influential attorneys in U.S. history are famous for their ability to deliver captivating, off-the-cuff speeches. Before he joined the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Thurgood Marshall was a litigator known for his powerful speeches during civil rights cases. And Clarence Darrow – a trial attorney who represented clients in some of the most controversial legal disputes of the early 20th century like the “Scopes monkey trial” – was often lauded for his ability to sway juries with his remarks.

Law school admissions committees strive to identify students who have the potential to have a lasting positive impact on the legal profession. That’s one reason why they look for applicants who have the capacity to speak with authority and conviction in a way that inspires others. But law schools also have a more pragmatic reason to recruit students with a silver tongue: Oral advocacy is a crucial part of many legal jobs.

Attorney Andrew Ittleman, a founder and partner with the Fuerst Ittleman David & Joseph law firm in Miami, says that showing poise during a law school admissions interview is a must.

“[In] exercises like that, you know, whether it’s sitting in an interview or arguing in court, you want to get to a place where you can be loose going in,” Ittleman says. “It’s not a test… Nobody is grading you the way that they would on a test. They want to see who you are as a person.”

Ittleman advises law school applicants to conduct a few practice interviews with people they trust who can provide honest feedback. “Go through a couple of dry runs,” he suggests. Ittleman says practice interviews help students discover the right words to use to clearly express their thoughts.

With that in mind, attorneys say that law school applicants should figure out how they’d like to answer the following questions before their admissions interviews.

1. Why do you want to become a lawyer? Experts say this is a question that J.D. applicants must have a compelling answer for, because law schools are wary of admitting students who view law school as a delay tactic to avoid making a career choice.

“I believe strongly that we should prepare and produce graduates who passionately want to be lawyers, because I believe lawyers who are passionate about what they are doing will be happy lawyers,” says Kathleen Boozang, dean of the Seton Hall University School of Law in New Jersey. “And so I am looking to see that the student is going to law school because they are inspired to go to law school, as opposed to [because] they really can’t think of anything else to do.”

2. Why are you applying to this particular law school? “Students should go into interviews knowing everything on that school’s website, its values, how it describes itself, who the star professors are, etc.,” says Ella Tyler, a retired lawyer who works as a tutor for Varsity Tutors, a virtual education platform. “Law requires preparation and research, so if you showcase those skill sets in your interview, it’s proof that you have what it takes to be a lawyer.”

3. What kind of law are you most interested in practicing? What is your dream law job? If you want to use a law degree in an unconventional way, such as in a policy job or a nonlegal business position, you may be asked: Why do you need a law degree? What would a law degree allow you to do professionally that you couldn’t do without the degree?

Experts say law schools are looking for applicants who can clearly articulate how they intend to use a J.D., because these schools don’t want to admit students who lack a clear justification for investing the time, effort and expense that law school requires.

“Law school is hard, it’s a lot of work, and you have to have the spark,” Boozang says. “You have to have a passion, you need to want to do it, and I want to just confirm that the student knows what they are getting into and that the desire is real.”

4. What book are you reading at the moment, and what do you think of it? If you aren’t currently reading a book, you may be asked an alternative question: Who is your favorite author and why?

Boozang says she asks questions like this to see whether a J.D. applicant is intellectually curious, enjoys the written word and can formulate a coherent argument about what he or she has read. The ability to analyze a text is a key skill for an aspiring lawyer, Boozang says.

Questions of this type are also meant to reveal whether an applicant has a well-rounded personality that includes interests besides academics, Boozang says. She advises applicants to read the news and continue pursuing their extracurricular interests during the law school admissions process, because it gives them something interesting to discuss when they are asked personal questions.

“I emphasize the importance to young people thinking about law school the need to be thinking about the world around them,” she says.

5. What college paper are you most proud of? The thinking behind this question is that it allows a J.D. applicant to discuss a subject they are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about, Boozang says. This interview question illuminates the way an applicant thinks and clarifies whether they have the mindset of a future attorney, she adds.

Boozang says a J.D. applicant who is asked this question should be prepared to answer follow-up queries about his or her paper, which may ultimately lead to a back-and-forth discussion with the interviewer. She says that the topic or thesis of the paper will be less relevant to the interviewer than whether the applicant is able to clearly explain his or her ideas and make a coherent argument.

6. How would you contribute to a law school class? Experts say questions like this give law school applicants an opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competitors in the J.D. admissions process.

Nyana Abreu, an attorney at Sequor Law in Miami, says the key to answering this question well is to talk less about academic statistics and more about who you are as a person.

“That’s not an academic question, and I think that’s something that a lot of candidates miss – that when you’re given an opportunity to talk about yourself, they don’t want to know your GPA [and] they don’t want to know your test scores,” she says. “They already know all those types of things. They want to know something memorable about you. So I would say, think of that question as more of a first date question. You’re not so much telling the interviewer why you’re so studious and hardworking. You’re telling the interviewer why people want to spend time with you.”

What’s the Best Bitcoin Wallet?

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May 3, 2018
By John Devine

Storing Bitcoin is just as important as buying it. With a wealth of options available, which is best?

Bitcoin – even well below previous highs – is one of the hottest assets of all time. What once cost 6 cents in 2010 peaked above $19,300 in 2017. If you own the cryptocurrency, or are even thinking of buying some, you’ll want to find the best bitcoin wallet you can.

Wallets are where the currency lives.

So, with blockchain technology here to stay, what’s the best bitcoin wallet for 2018 and beyond? With an emphasis on safety, here are the top five crypto wallets and wallet types.

No. 5: Coinbase (online exchange). Online exchanges are, by and large, less secure than the methods described below. But Coinbase seems to have learned from the lessons of its predecessors, and is one of the biggest bitcoin exchanges in the world. It’s also user friendly; not only can you buy, sell, exchange and trade bitcoin on Coinbase, but you can store your bitcoin in a wallet there, too.

The site also supports Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

But the risks of storing bitcoin – and any other cryptocurrency, for that matter – on the same site where you buy it are steep, and there’s a poor track record.

“There have been many incidents of those types of service providers collapsing in the middle of the night and people losing serious amounts of money. Mt. Gox being a great example there,” says Andrew Ittleman, founder and partner of Fuerst Ittleman David & Joseph, a law firm in Miami.

In 2014, Mt. Gox was the Coinbase of the world, being the go-to exchange for excited new cryptocurrency investors. That is, until February of that year when about 850,000 bitcoin vanished from its coffers – a haul that works out to about $7.57 billion at today’s prices.

In 2016, another hack took the Bitfinex exchange platform for 120,000 bitcoin, a $75 million score that would be worth more than $2.3 billion by BTC’s all- time high in December 2017 .

Despite the tainted history of its predecessors, Coinbase’s ease of use, a more secure storage option called Vault, and two-factor authentication make Coinbase the best bitcoin wallet provider among the exchanges.

No. 4: Blockchain.info (online wallet). Exchanges are ripe pickings for ambitious hackers. Web-based wallets can pose some security and hacking risks too, but they don’t have quite the glaring target on their backs that exchanges do. Nor do they have the nightmares of Mt. Gox and Bitfinex hanging over them.

Claiming to be the “world’s most popular digital wallet,” Blockchain.info boasts more than 24 million wallets and has supported more than 100 million transactions. Security is a top priority, and with many longtime cryptocurrency enthusiasts comfortably keeping their spoils there for years, even as Mt. Gox and Bitfinex were breached, it would have to be.

For the extremely technologically impaired in society, web-based wallets are just an additional step of complexity – but that’s the trade-off you get for additional security, and it’s a trade-off that continues as we proceed to the best bitcoin wallet available.

No. 3: Electrum (software wallet). Electrum is a popular, free storage option in the bitcoin community, and is one of the most, if not the most, well- respected desktop storage apps out there. It’s been around since 2011 and is also available for mobile, though Apple(ticker: AAPL) iPhone users are out of luck – to date it’s only supported by Android.

Electrum gets high marks for its ease of use and user interface, which is always nice, but the real reason it’s the best bitcoin wallet for desktop is its safety and reliability. Like any desktop wallet that’s worth its salt, users get to control their private key; Electrum doesn’t know what it is. Since your private key, a long string of letters and numbers, gives you access to your bitcoin, you need to keep that, you know, private.

Many online wallets and online exchanges don’t give you ultimate control of your private key, adding an extra layer of risk. You have to both trust the counterparty is a good actor, and hope their servers don’t get hacked, as that could compromise the service or your information.

Electrum also boasts two-factor authentication, and supports hardware wallets and cold storage – techniques that are further detailed below.

No. 2: Ledger or Trezor (hardware wallets/dongles). When you start thinking about using hardware storage solutions for your cryptocurrency, you know you’ve gotten serious. These dongles both make the best bitcoin wallet list because of their safety and mobility. Plus, they’re good enough for professional investors.

“We have a little bit of experience in this area and prefer using Trezor and Ledger Nano S,” says Peter Keenan, director of investments at Hehmeyer Trading + Investments, headquartered in Chicago.

“Both wallets are ‘cold storage’ wallets which we highly recommend. Cold storage eliminates counterparty risk and greatly reduces cybersecurity risk,” Keenan says. “Counterparty risk refers to the risk of losing your bitcoin to the exchange where you bought your bitcoin due to nefarious acts like hacking – Mt. Gox as an example.”

The downside of these solutions? First, they’re not free, like all the previous wallets mentioned. Trezor’s base model costs 89 euros, while the Ledger Nano S costs 79 euros.

No. 1: Paper wallet or other cold storage. A paper wallet is simply a document that contains all the information you need to generate the bitcoin private keys you need. It often takes the form of a piece of paper with a QR code that can be scanned into a software wallet when you so desire. By storing your bitcoin offline, trusting nothing and no one but yourself, and if you have all the information you need to control and access your bitcoin, you’re using the strongest “cold storage” method out there.

“I recommend using a paper wallet so you have a physical backup of the private key,” says Ryan Spanier, director of research at Kudelski Security. “Be sure to generate it using a clean system, such as a Linux live CD. Store this in a safe place, such as a safe or safety deposit box.”

The incremental complexity and technological know-how needed for this method are both downsides to the paper wallet approach. Cold storage solutions and hardware wallets are less nimble than other options, too; if the price of bitcoin were crashing, for example, you might find yourself slower to the draw than if you merely kept your BTC on a site like Coinbase.

Sure, paper wallets may elicit images of a tin foil hat-wearing paranoid, but the truth is the paper wallet is the best bitcoin wallet for 2018 and beyond because it’s the safest, and in the crypto space the value of safety is – or at least should be – placed at a premium.

Blockchain Technology May Change the World, But What Are the Risks?

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February 9, 2018
By Kinsey Grant

Bitcoin’s incredible price swings have gotten blockchain technology in the news. But what’s at stake when everything heads to a distributed ledger? Experts weigh in.

Not many mainstream investors knew what blockchain technology was a handful of years ago. But today, anyone who doesn’t know the word “blockchain” (or at least “Bitcoin”) must be living under a rock.

The applications for the open source, distributed ledger platform linked through cryptography and backing cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin are boundless, experts agree.

“We’re bullish on blockchain as part of a broader digital transition for public and private companies,” said Bill Briggs, technology chief at Deloitte Consulting. Blockchain could impact every industry Deloitte services, Briggs explained, from government services to healthcare to supply chain analytics.

“It certainly represents a new, unique and possibly disruptive way for people in underserved economies to store value, which they’ve really never been able to do before safely,” said Andrew Ittleman, founder and partner at law firm Fuerst Ittleman David & Joseph. “The investment side of crypto, while I know it’s important, that’s not really what motivates me.”

But with every promised revolution comes risk. What should investors know about the blockchain, its capabilities and its implications?

How big can this get?

Think about how disruptive the advent of cloud computing was 10 years ago. That’s how enormous blockchain could become in Briggs’ view.

Tech research firm Gartner Inc. predicts blockchain’s value-add will grow to $176 billion by 2025, Deloitte noted in a Tech Trends 2018 report in December.

If blockchain’s genesis is to be compared to that of the internet in the 1990s, “in terms of development you have to think about it in dog years,” said Blake Estes, counsel in Alston & Bird’s Financial Services and Products Group and co-leader of the firm’s Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Tech Team. Estes means that the pace of evolution is so rapid, it’s hardly useful to think about it in a typical time frame.

Right now, we’re around the year 1996 if the timeline for the internet
and that for blockchain were compared. But just six months ago, Estes said, we were only in about 1994.

“People are still getting AOL CDs in the mail,” Estes joked, suggesting there is still a far way to go until blockchain reaches its potential.

It’s important to note that, although Bitcoin is the headline-grabbing blockchain application, it is just a small part of a much bigger picture. Estes said Bitcoin is to blockchain as email is to the internet. It’s useful, but it’s a minuscule piece of the puzzle.

What can blockchain do for you?

The cross-border payment capabilities of blockchain technology also cross industries, Briggs explained, providing the capacity to merge operations among banking, financial services and trade finance sectors relatively seamlessly.

 

Bitcoin vs. the U.S. Dollar: Which Is the Real Bubble?

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February 7, 2018
By Kinsey Grant

Is Bitcoin the bubble, or is Bitcoin the pin?

That’s the question some of the top minds in cryptocurrency have been asking as calls of a “Bitcoin bubble” grow louder. It’s hard to deny that Bitcoin was distinctly bubble-ish at the end of 2017, finishing the year up nearly 1,800% from where it started.

An increasing number of crypto leaders have called out the ability of digital assets to democratize finance and globalize market access, drawing sharp differences with it from that of fiat currencies based on the actions of a select few, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen included among them.

“Here you’ve got Janet Yellen telling not only normal people that they’re too stupid to understand the reasoning behind quantitative easing, she’s telling Congress they’re too dumb, that they don’t have any business looking into her reasoning for quantitative easing,” said Coindesk head of research Nolan Bauerle.

Bauerle explained that many leaders in the crypto world argue that it’s the dollar, and not Bitcoin, that’s a bubble. That’s because the Fed and other policy leaders are “devaluing the dollar that everyone is working for,” Bauerle said.

The argument ties in well to a key aspect of the founding ethos for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies: immunity from inflation. When anonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi first established the coin, he created it such that there are only ever going to be 21 million Bitcoins in the world. In the minds of crypto evangelists, the finite supply means Bitcoin is immune to the orchestrated inflation that occurs when the Treasury prints more money.

“If you go back to a macroeconomic argument, there’s an argument there that fiat is a bubble. We don’t know how many U.S. dollars there are,” Bauerle said.

“Put it this way — one Bitcoin is still worth one Bitcoin. And how many dollars it’s worth is a reflection of the devaluation of the U.S. dollar, not necessarily the other way around,” Bauerle said.

He noted that a lot of the leaders in Bitcoin don’t view it as a bubble, but rather as the pin that will pop a larger, more ominous bubble — the fiat currency of the United States.

“It’s a matter of perspective,” he said. “Is Bitcoin worth more dollars because Bitcoin’s value has gone up, or is Bitcoin worth more dollars because the dollar’s value has gone down?”

It’s worth noting that Bitcoin has steadily shed value over the past few weeks, dipping as low as $5,947.40 on Feb. 6, according to Coindesk. That’s after the cryptocurrency soared to a high of $20,089 on Dec. 17.

The U.S. dollar index, which compares the greenback to a basket of other currencies, has moved lower about 2.8% since the start of the year. Bitcoin, on the other hand has decreased 47.3% in the same time.

Bitcoin could trade between $6,000 and $60,000 in 2018, simply because of its “hyper volatility” and reflexivity, said Ari Paul, chief investment officer and co-founder of BlockTower Capital.

“The higher Bitcoin goes and the faster it gets there, the more likely it is to crash,” Paul said. The reflexivity of the currency means that as it rallies, it invites everything from regulation to speculation to scams from bad actors.

By the end of 2018, Paul is looking for Bitcoin between $15,000 and $85,000.

But at the end of the day, the price of Bitcoin is irrelevant, said Andrew Ittleman, founder and partner at law firm Fuerst Ittleman David &

Joseph. Ittleman has focused his law career on fintech regulation, white collar criminal defense and anti-money laundering compliance.

“Nothing about that has changed from when Bitcoin was $100 apiece or $1,000 apiece,” Ittleman explained. It’s about “powerful ways to communicate, share value, send money,” he said, not a means to turn a profit.

“The downturn or the drop in value over the last few weeks in my opinion is more of a consequence of the $20,000 value just not being realistic at all,” Ittleman said.

“I just really have a hard time imagining a Bitcoin being able to hold onto a value of $19,000 or $20,000,” Ittleman said. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

 

Bitcoin is Booming in Miami. But can you buy a House with it?

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January 26, 2018
By Rene Rodriguez

They gathered in downtown Miami — an estimated 4,350 Bitcoin believers — to trade pitches for apps and start-ups. They discussed and debated trends in cryptocurrency. They speculated about the volatility of Bitcoin, which shot up in value from $900 to $19,000 over the course of 2017 and is currently hovering around the $10,000 mark.

But despite the national stir created last fall when a $544,500 Edgewater condo was listed for sale in “Bitcoin only,” none of the panels or presentations at Miami’s sixth annual North American Bitcoin Conference focused on real estate. Although Bitcoin is the oldest and best-known of the nearly 1,500 kinds of cryptocurrencies currently available, real estate developers, brokers and analysts are cool on its use in an industry that is literally defined by physical assets.

In other words, if you’re hunting for a home, don’t worry that you’ll get outbid by a buyer offering cryptocurrency. At least not yet.

“I think it’s fine to buy Bitcoin, because high risks lead to high returns, and I believe in capitalism,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist for Redfin, a national real estate brokerage. “But when you come to buy my house, I’m going to need a currency that I can use to buy milk at the grocery store. I wouldn’t accept junk bonds or a lottery ticket as a payment. Any currency that drops 45 percent in value within three months, like Bitcoin has done, is not a currency that is stable enough for large transactions.”

According to Redfin, only 134 out of the site’s total 568,000 listings in December 2017 — a miniscule .03 percent — included a Bitcoin mention.

Created in 2009, Bitcoin is digital currency tracked on decentralized ledgers — called blockchains — that keep a real-time, immutable record of every transaction made around the world. Buyer and seller interact directly. Bitcoins can be purchased through a digital currency exchange or broker and are kept in a “wallet” that protects the user’s anonymity. And because the blockchain system is not centralized, security is considered to be significantly safer than current e-transaction software.

For now, at least, Bitcoin is not regulated by any bank, state or nation.

General awareness of Bitcoin and blockchains exploded in 2017 as the cryptocurrency’s value skyrocketed. Earlier this month, the stock price of Eastman-Kodak shot up 89 percent, to $10.70 a share, just a day after the company announced an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to develop a blockchain system for photographers to secure the digital rights of their work.

Miami is one of the nation’s staunchest and most enthusiastic cryptocurrency hubs, and proponents of Bitcoin argue that cryptocurrency is a perfect fit for real estate. On Dec. 22, the first-ever Bitcoin-only real estate deal in Miami closed, with a buyer paying 17.741 bitcoin — the market equivalent of $275,000 — for a two-bedroom condo at 777 NE 62nd St. in the Upper East Side.

But some experts believe a lot of the hype around Bitcoin is just that — hype. The currency’s value fluctuates so much that the value of a Bitcoin transaction could either gain or lose thousands of dollars in value within a week’s time. In an interview with CNBC on Jan. 10, billionaire investor Warren Buffett warned that the cryptocurrency craze is destined to end badly, costing a lot of people a lot of money.

“We’re in an area of hysteria right now involving Bitcoin,” said Andrew Ittleman, a partner at the Miami law firm of Fuerst, Ittleman, David & Joseph. “There are a lot of people making claims about Bitcoin that they can’t substantiate and for the most part are not meant to be substantiated. I do see a lot of uses for cryptocurrency in real estate, but I don’t see the disruptive effect some people are promising.”

Waning favor?

Andrew Hinkes, a partner at the law firm of Berger Singerman who specializes in technology-related issues, said cryptocurrency is nearing the end of its initial wave of interest from Wall Street and investment by new ventures. Bitcoin still has a long way to go before it is widely embraced by the real estate industry.

“Nothing has really changed insofar as how virtual currencies are impacting real estate,” he said. “A lot of people saw tremendous gains in the values of their holdings in 2017. But now that the IRS has made clear how they want to treat the gains on crypto like Bitcoin, there’s uncertainty in the market as to how you sell them and find value. In South Florida, that’s traditionally in the ground. But if you want title insurance, or if there are any liens or taxes that are owed, those will have to be payed with fiat currency.”

A giant Bitcoin logo welcomed visitors outside the James L. Knight Center during the North American Bitcoin Conference held Jan. 18-19, 2018.

Although the Internal Revenue Service taxes Bitcoin capital gains — if you cash
out for a profit, the IRS gets a cut — there’s no procedure in place that forces people to report those transactions. (In November, the IRS ordered Coinbase, a platform for buying and selling Bitcoin, to turn over information on accounts from 2013-2015 that were worth at least $20,000.)

The current lack of regulations is one of Bitcoin’s biggest draws for its users. And despite suspicion that Miami’s real estate market is prey to money launderers, it can be a deal-breaker for real estate. For example, South Korea, the third biggest cryptocurrency market in the world (after Japan and the U.S.), has banned anonymous cryptocurrency transactions, fearful of the potential for shady business.

That uncertainty and lack of transparency, combined with cryptocurrency’s volatility, is making real estate developers and investors wary.

“Bitcoin is too new of a form of currency,” said Daniel de la Vega, a Realtor with Sotheby’s International. “Anything that operates in a gray area is not something I would want to associate with. I do believe in the future of cryptocurrency. I’m just not bullish on it short term.”

The Miami Association of Realtors reports that sales of luxury ($1 million and above) condos and single-family homes in Miami-Dade County surged 47 percent and 16 percent respectively year-over-year in December. But the market is still glutted by too much supply, which caused the average luxury sales price to fall 6.3 percent in 2017, according to Mansion Global.

Still, the need to sell expensive properties is not enough to make developers rally behind Bitcoin — at least for now. Gil Dezer, president of Dezer Development, said if a buyer made a Bitcoin offer right now on one of the multimillion dollar condos at the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach, he would turn them “If Bitcoin is so easily transferable to cash, why do they need to pay with that?” Dezer said. “Why can’t they transfer it into cash first and pay with that? The transverse effect of that is the seller receiving the money. If he wants Bitcoin, he can take the cash and buy Bitcoin. Why would you use Bitcoin in the actual transaction?”

Peggy Fucci, CEO of One World Properties, said she has yet to come across a buyer or seller interested in using Bitcoin as a form of payment, but she understands Bitcoin’s buzzy appeal.

“I think the general consensus from the developers I work with and represent is that the whole deal with Bitcoin and real estate is a marketing thing — a way to get exposure for your property,” she said. “I don’t see it as a real thing yet. Most people don’t even know about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. Eventually, it is something that will be inevitable. But right now, it’s too early. We don’t use it. Instead, people are riding the wave of a phenomenal stock market.”

Realtors wary

Some Realtors who have had first-hand experience with Bitcoin agree that cryptocurrency isn’t yet ready for prime time in the real estate field.

Edgardo Defortuna, president and CEO of the real estate firm Fortune International Group, said his company has been involved in two listings where Bitcoin was in play: A $4.6 million home on Sunset Island where the seller accepted Bitcoin (the house eventually sold for $3.8 million via conventional loan) and a Key Biscayne condo currently on the market for $1.5 million (the seller received and turned down an offer for $1 million in Bitcoin).

“Bitcoin was talked about a lot last year because of the appreciation, but it has scared a lot of people away in the last month or two,” Defortuna said. “Cryptocurrency could be a player [in real estate transactions] in the future, but I’m not sure this Bitcoin craziness is the way to go yet.”

But Charles Penan, executive vice president of the real estate investment and merchant banking firm Aztec Group Inc., takes a more flexible approach. He currently has a property for sale at 4141 North Miami Ave. in Miami’s Design District — a three-story, nearly 16,000 square-foot building — for $14.5 million. The seller, Remy Jacobson of J Cube Development, is accepting cryptocurrency as payment.

“Crypto is a very viable alternative to traditional financing — for the right buyer and right seller,” said Penan. “They have to be more entrepreneurial. Bitcoin does not work for institutions, because they are more transactional and want instant gratification. They don’t want to assume any risk of fluctuation.”

Others are already doing due diligence, preparing themselves for what they believe to be an inevitable and radical change in traditional real estate transactions. Beth Butler, general manager of Compass Florida, a technology- focused real estate firm, said her company isn’t accepting Bitcoin yet. But she’s currently researching the field, tapping experts to figure out the problems that need to be solved before cryptocurrency can be readily used.

“So far, people are very open to it,” Butler said. “The appeal is that blockchain could make real estate transactions more secure. You wouldn’t have the wire fraud or hacking fraud that has been plaguing our industry in the last few years. But there’s a lot more that needs to be defined on a large scale first. The concept of blockchain suggests to me that state law and regulators will have to adopt some kind of policy to accept it.”

An optimistic gathering

Bitcoin believers, however, remain undaunted. German Montoya, chief strategy officer for the Miami-based venture-building company Rokk3r Labs, said the volume and enthusiasm of attendants at the North American Bitcoin Conference — far bigger than the roughly 100 people who turned out for the inaugural edition in 2012 — is evidence that cryptocurrency is destined to take hold.

“For a long time, the only thing you could do with Bitcoin was buy and sell it,” Montoya said. “There are only a few coffee shops in the world that take Bitcoin, for example. The more Bitcoin is used for real things, the more this coin will become a real alternative to others.”

At the conference, the main exhibition hall was crammed with start-ups hoping to use blockchain technology for everything from Bitcoin ATMs to virtual reality. Dr. Gor Van Ek, a respected figure in the blockchain field, flew in from Australia to promote his latest endeavor, Bitcar, a platform that will allow users to purchase an interest in exotic, rare and classic cars — a way of investment that has been traditionally exclusive to the wealthy.

“This is the third or fourth year that I’ve gone to that conference, and I had never seen this sheer scale and number of people who attended,” said Hinkes, the attorney. “That signals a certain threshold of consumers have been reached. Bitcoin is starting to make an impact and insinuate itself into the mainstream.”

Many of the panels at the conference delved into upcoming regulation that would stabilize Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for both consumers and government entities. That kind of regulation, if successful, could presumably offset Bitcoin’s volatility and make it a more viable and dependable medium for large-value transactions.

“Once there are enough things to spend Bitcoin on directly, the real estate market could never be a reason to go back to the dollar,” Montoya said. “You could have a whole economy where you use Bitcoin to buy and sell and spend.”

The questions, for now, are how long that wait will be and whether Bitcoin’s seesawing value can stabilize. Six weeks after all the hubbub, that Bitcoin-only condo in Edgewater still hasn’t sold. On Jan. 24, the price on the listing was quietly raised to 37 Bitcoin.

Despite the apparent increase, though, the adjustment actually brought the value of the condo down in dollars — from $525,000 to $410,000.

What’s the Best Bitcoin Wallet?

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November 06, 2017
By John Divine

Storing Bitcoin is just as important as buying it. With a wealth of options available, which is best?

Bitcoin is hot. What once cost 6 cents in 2010 hit highs above $7,400 in 2017. If you own the cryptocurrency, or are even thinking of buying some, you’ll want to find the best bitcoin wallet you can.

Wallets are where the currency lives.

So, with blockchain technology here to stay, what’s the best bitcoin wallet for 2018 and beyond? With an emphasis on safety, here are the top five wallets and wallet types.

No. 5: Coinbase (online exchange). Online exchanges are, by and large, less secure than the methods described below. But Coinbase seems to have learned from the lessons of its predecessors, and is one of the biggest bitcoin exchanges in the world. It’s also user friendly; not only can you buy, sell, exchange and trade bitcoin on Coinbase, but you can store your bitcoin in a wallet there, too.

But the risks of keeping bitcoin on the same site where you buy it are steep, and there’s a poor track record.

“There’ve been many incidents of those types of service providers collapsing in the middle of the night and people losing serious amounts of money. Mt. Gox being a great example there,” says Andrew Ittleman, founder and partner of Fuerst Ittleman David & Joseph, a law firm in Miami.

In 2014, Mt. Gox was the Coinbase of the world, being the go to exchange for excited new cryptocurrency investors. That is, until February of that year when about 850,000 bitcoin vanished from its coffers – a haul that works out to about $6.29 billion at today’s prices.

In 2016, another hack took the Bitfinex exchange platform for 120,000 bitcoin, a $75 million score that would be worth more than $890 million by 2017.

Despite the tainted history of its predecessors, Coinbase’s ease of use, a more secure storage option called “Vault,” and two factor authentication put Coinbase as the best bitcoin wallet provider among the exchanges.

No. 4: Blockchain.info (online wallet). Exchanges are ripe pickings for ambitious hackers. Web based wallets can pose some security and hacking risks too, but they don’t have quite the glaring target on their backs that exchanges do. Nor do they have the nightmares of Mt. Gox and Bitfinex hanging over them.

Claiming to be the “world’s most popular digital wallet,” Blockchain.info boasts more than 15 million wallets and has supported more than 100 million transactions. Security is a top priority, and with many longtime cryptocurrency enthusiasts comfortably keeping their spoils there for years, even as Mt. Gox and Bitfinex were breached, it would have to be.

For the extremely technologically impaired in society, web based wallets are just an additional step of complexity – but that’s the trade off you get for additional security, and it’s a trade off that continues as we proceed to the best bitcoin wallet available.

No. 3: Electrum (software wallet). Electrum is a popular, free storage option in the bitcoin community, and is one of the most, if not the most, well respected desktop storage apps out there. It’s been around since 2011 and is also available for mobile, though Apple Inc.(Nasdaq: AAPL) users are out of luck – to date it’s only supported by Android.

Electrum gets high marks for its ease of use and user interface, which is always nice, but the real reason it’s the best bitcoin wallet for desktop is its safety and reliability. Like any desktop wallet that’s worth its salt, users get to control their private key; Electrum doesn’t know what it is. Since your private key, a long string of letters and numbers, gives you access to your bitcoin, you need to keep that, you know, private.

Many online wallets and online exchanges don’t give you ultimate control of your private key, adding an extra layer of risk. You have to both trust the counterparty is a good actor, and hope their servers don’t get hacked, if that could compromise the service or your information.

Electrum also boasts two factor authentication, and supports hardware wallets and cold storage – techniques that are further detailed below.

No. 2: Ledger or Trezor (hardware wallets/dongles). When you start thinking about using hardware storage solutions for your cryptocurrency, you know you’ve gotten serious. These dongles both make the best bitcoin wallet list because of their safety and mobility. Plus, they’re good enough for professional investors.

“We have a little bit of experience in this area and prefer using Trezor and Ledger Nano S,” says Peter Keenan, director of investments at Hehmeyer Trading + Investments, headquartered in Chicago.

“Both wallets are ‘cold storage’ wallets which we highly recommend. Cold storage eliminates counterparty risk and greatly reduces cybersecurity risk,” Keenan says. “Counterparty risk refers to the risk of losing your bitcoin to the exchange where you bought your bitcoin due to nefarious acts like hacking – Mt. Gox as an example.”

The downside of these solutions? First, they’re not free, like all the previous wallets mentioned. Trezor’s base model costs 89 euros, while the Ledger Nano S costs 58 euros. Both have fancier solutions that cost 229 euros (Ledger Blue) and 139 euros (Trezor model T).

No. 1: Paper wallet or other cold storage. A paper wallet is simply a document that contains all the information you need to generate
the bitcoin private keys you need. It often takes the form of a piece of paper with a QR code that can be scanned into a software wallet when you so desire. By storing your bitcoin offline, trusting nothing and no one but yourself, and you have all the information you need to control and access your bitcoin, you’re using the strongest “cold storage” method out there.

“I recommend using a paper wallet so you have a physical backup of the private key,” says Ryan Spanier, director of research at Kudelski Security.

“Be sure to generate it using a clean system, such as a Linux live CD. Store this in a safe place, such as a safe or safety deposit box,” Spanier says.

The incremental complexity and technological know how needed for this method are both downsides to the paper wallet approach. Cold storage solutions and hardware wallets are less nimble than other options, too; if bitcoin were crashing, for example, you might find yourself slower to the draw than if you merely kept your bitcoin on a site like Coinbase.

Sure, paper wallets may elicit images of a tin foil hat wearing paranoid, but the truth is that a paper wallet is the best bitcoin wallet for 2018 and beyond because it’s the safest, and in the crypto space the value of safety is – or at least should be – placed at a premium.

Why the Trump Organization Can Play Dumb on Money Laundering

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October 01, 2017
By Maren McInnes

Due diligence for buyers is minimal, but Treasury is tightening rules on shell companies

President Trump has been connected to allegations of money laundering as far back as 1987, when a Russian gangster forfeited five condos in Trump Tower that authorities said he purchased with ill-gotten gains. And the appearance of impropriety hasn’t faded: A Kazakh family who bought apartments in Trump’s SoHo building is facing laundering charges from their government as well as the United States.

Yet even with special counsel Robert Mueller now reportedly investigating even more questions surrounding laundering between Trump and Russia, legal experts say the Trump Organization’s habit of selling to suspicious individuals over and over may be perfectly legal.

In fact, a privately held company like Trump’s is “generally not” obligated to investigate buyers of its property, says Stefan Cassella, former deputy chief of the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture and money laundering section. But that may change, as the Treasury Department has been steadily building a body of regulations that increase the responsibility of sellers across the board.

Laundering money via high-end real estate is a fairly common practice among criminals and corrupt organizations. Criminals create a shell company, which they use to buy a property. When they finally sell it, the money is clean. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in an August advisory that real estate can be “an attractive vehicle for laundering illicit gains” because it appreciates in value, “cleans” large sums in one transaction, and shields buyers from market instability.

A New York Times investigation in 2015 found that more than half of all condo sales at the Trump International in New York were by hidden buyers. A more recent USA Today study found such transactions with the Trump Organization have rose 70 percent since Trump’s nomination.

The law hasn’t historically made many demands on sellers of such properties. University of Pennsylvania Law School professor Stuart Ebby said while the doctrine of caveat emptor—”let the buyer beware”—dates to the 17th century, there doesn’t exist an equivalent principle for sellers.

“Logically, the sellers aren’t in a position to investigate or deter buyers of their property,” said Katie Johnson, general counsel for the National Association of Realtors. “They don’t really have any incentive or desire to do that. They want to sell their property.”

There is a concept called customer due diligence, she explained, and the NAR has been strongly encouraging their member agents to “know your customer” for years. The association has a document that outlines recommendations for their members to spot potential illicit financial activities such as money laundering.

The August FinCEN advisory said while real estate agents and brokers are not required by law to report suspicious activity, they are encouraged to.

Property owners themselves are confined largely by criminal law. “Regulations are not yet designed for the sellers of the property, but to say that there’s no obligation on them I think is going a little bit too far,” said Andrew S. Ittleman, partner at Fuerst Ittleman David & Joseph. If a seller knowingly sells to a criminal and receives money derived from a crime, he could be prosecuted.

Cassella added that sellers who are “willfully blind” could still be charged. And anyone receiving more than $10,000 in a cash transaction must report it to the IRS. “There’s not a bright line, but there is a line that can be crossed,” he said.

If the seller is a financial institution, however, they are required by law to check out buyers. The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 explicitly authorized FinCEN to create anti-money-laundering regulations for financial institutions, including those, like mortgage lenders, that deal in real estate. They also must file reports of suspicious activity.

In an email, a FinCEN spokesperson noted the law defines financial institutions as businesses and professions that could be vulnerable to money laundering or financial crime—banks, brokers, insurance companies, and even casinos. (In 2015, the Trump Taj Mahal casino had to pay the Treasury Department millions for violating anti-money- laundering laws.)

The BSA statute that defines financial institutions was amended by the PATRIOT Act to include persons involved in real estate closings and settlements. However, Jack Hayes, counsel at Steptoe & Johnson, explained that FinCEN hasn’t published final regulations implementing specific anti-money-laundering-compliance obligations that apply to such persons as financial institutions.

In the wake of the PATRIOT Act, FinCEN called for public input, but after reviewing comments, “recognized the complexity of the problem and chose not to impose anti-laundering requirements across all persons involved in real estate closings and settlements.” Therefore, they started with the real-estate-finance sector first and let individual sellers be.

In May 2016, Treasury announced new actions to combat illicit financial activities, including a customer due diligence rule that said financial institutions have to collect and verify personal information on the real people behind companies. Then in August, FinCEN announced requirements that title-insurance companies identify the real people behind shell companies that pay “all-cash” for high-end residential real estate in big markets such as New York and Miami.

Despite these new requirements, Cassella wonders at what point Treasury will impose on the real estate industry the full complement of rules that have been imposed on banks and other financial institutions.

“Financial institutions resisted this for some time, but they’ve come around in the 30 years I’ve been doing this,” he said. “I would expect the real estate industry, including title insurers, real estate agents and developers, would [initially] resist in the same fashion,” but eventually come around as well.

Feds Widen Hunt for Dirty Money in Miami Real Estate

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August 23, 2017
By Nicholas Nehamas and Rene Rodriguez

Wake up and smell the dirty money.

That’s the message federal regulators are sending to the real estate industry in Miami and other high priced housing markets.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would extend and expand a temporary initiative designed to uncover criminals laundering money through real estate. The decree targets secretive shell companies — corporations that don’t have to reveal their true owners — buying luxury homes. The feds have already renewed the rules twice since first issuing them in March 2016.

But this time, there’s a big difference — and it’s putting Miami’s struggling condo market under even more scrutiny.

The rules, previously so limited in scope that they applied only to a few hundred transactions, will now cover every big ticket cash transaction by shell companies in seven major markets. They are the South Florida counties of Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach; all five boroughs of New York City; San Antonio, Texas; Honolulu (included in the order for the first time); and the metropolitan areas around San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.

“This is going to gather much more information,” said Andrew Ittleman, a South Florida attorney who specializes in anti money laundering laws.

There’s been speculation about whether the administration of President Donald Trump, a former real estate developer, would double down on an initiative pushed by Obama era officials. But the new policy shows Trump’s Treasury digging even deeper into the murky world of luxury real estate.

The end result: It’s going to get a lot harder for everyone from drug dealers to Latin American politicians to foreign royalty to shield their purchases of condos and mansions in the United States from law enforcement.

The federal decree comes at a bad time for Miami real estate. Overbuilding and a slump in wealthy foreign buyers are hurting sales. the average sales price for luxury condo units on Miami Beach fell 21 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2017, according to a report from brokerage Douglas Elliman, . Two thirds of those sales were cash.

The rules kick in at different price points depending on the market. In South Florida, they apply to shell companies buying homes for $1 million or more with cash.

“This will help a market that has long neglected the amount of criminal activity taking place in the condo sector,” said Jack McCabe, a South Florida real estate analyst.

But Peter Zalewski, founder of the real estate advisory company Cranespotters, thinks the government is moving too slowly — and not going far enough.

“If you’re closing a $10 million sale and you stand to make $1 million on the deal, that’s a pretty big carrot,” Zalewski said. “And there’s no fear of a government stick, because there isn’t one in place.”

Bark or bite?

Critics dismissed Treasury’s original anti money laundering rules — first deployed in Miami Dade and Manhattan last year — as largely toothless.

That’s because they looked only at less common methods of cash payments such as money orders, personal checks and hard currency. But the latest order now includes wire transfers, which are electronic exchanges of money between banks. In most home sales that don’t involve bank loans, money is sent from buyers to sellers through wire transfers. Regulators were missing out on a huge swath of transactions.

“It exempted most people from disclosure,” said Alan Lips, a partner at Miami accounting firm Gerson Preston. “In today’s world, people wire money.”

Until an act of Congress earlier this summer, the Treasury agency behind the initiative, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), did not have the authority to monitor wire transfers.

John Tobon, who leads a team of Department of Homeland Security investigators in South Florida, said the move is a crucial first step in allowing law enforcement to monitor funds moving electronically. After the first order, his agents observed home buyers immediately come up with “countermeasures” to avoid the disclosure requirements, including the use of wire transfers, Tobon said.

“Wire transfers were wide open” for abuse by criminals, “and no one was looking at them,” he said. “Now, we’re going to be able to identify companies and individuals that we had no idea about in the past.”

FinCEN is targeting cash home deals because it says they are most susceptible to money laundering. Cash transactions generally don’t involve heavy bank vetting. When banks give out mortgages, they are required to background their customers; professionals in the real estate industry are exempt from those responsibilities, although that could be changing.

Naughty or nice

As part of FinCEN’s latest push, the agency has told real estate industry professionals they should be on the lookout for suspicious activity from their clients.

“The misuse of shell companies to launder money is a systemic concern for law enforcement and regulatory agencies,” the agency wrote in an advisory to real estate agents, brokers, lawyers and other industry players.

It also encouraged them to report suspicious activity involving clients.

Warning signs of bad behavior include clients willing to blindly overpay or lose money on a deal; the purchase of properties with “no regard” for their condition or location; funding that far exceeds a client’s known wealth; and clients asking for unwarranted secrecy or for records to be altered.

David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in South Florida who now works in white collar criminal defense, called the advisory “heavy handed.”

FinCEN is “asking people who are not financial institutions and have no outright obligations to become an arm of the government, to become informants for them,” he said, “They’re sending a not so subtle message: We want you to tell us what’s going on. The implication is that if you don’t do this, we’re going to come after you and start squeezing you and say in our eyes you should have known what was going on. You should have vetted this money.”

Although real estate professionals aren’t required to set up compliance programs, no one is allowed to “willfully” turn a blind eye to money laundering, according to federal law.

Weinstein recommended that realty firms consider implementing basic compliance programs.

Ron Shuffield, CEO of EWM Realty International, says the new requirement means closing agents must confirm the name and address of a beneficial owner with a 25 percent stake in a corporation or limited liability company via a legal form of ID, such as a passport or driver’s license.

“There’s no legitimate buyer who’s going to feel uncomfortable with this,” Shuffield said. “Most of the transactions we do now, it’s already obvious who the beneficials are.”

The degree to which suspect money fuels Miami’s luxe real estate market is debated. But real estate crops up in case after case involving illicit funds. The release of the massive trove of offshore files known as the Panama Papers showed how easily offshore money moves into Miami real estate. The flood of cash has helped raise home prices far beyond what most locals can afford.

In FinCEN’s advisory, the agency highlighted several cases showing the threat posed by money laundering. One example cited was Venezuela’s vice president, Tareck El Aissami, and his associate, Samark López Bello. Both were sanctioned by U.S. authorities for their alleged involvement in narco trafficking. López Bello owns three Brickell condos valued at nearly $7 million.

Tobon, of Homeland Security, said roughly 50 percent of his investigations involve money laundering through real estate.

The new order takes effect on Sept. 22 and expires on March 20, 2018. It could eventually be made permanent and expanded nationwide. The Washington D.C. bureau of the Herald’s parent company, McClatchy, broke the news that the order would be extended Tuesday.

Achilles’ heel

The FinCEN initiative — called a geographic targeting order — was designed to target the Achilles’ heel of American anti money laundering laws: weak transparency rules for limited liability corporations.

In many states, including Florida, it’s possible to set up an anonymous company and use it to buy a pricey mansion or condo. Offshore companies can be used for the same purpose. That’s catnip to criminals who don’t want anyone asking where they got the cash.

FinCEN changed the game by requiring title insurers — which are involved in almost all real estate transactions — to pierce the veil of shell companies and determine who really owns them. The information is then passed on to FinCEN and shared with law enforcement, but not made public.

Because of the limitations of the original rules, only 247 transactions in the target markets were reported to regulators over 12 months. But 30 percent of those sales were linked to people who’d been separately reported for suspicious activity by financial institutions.

In Miami Dade, 16 of 32 reported deals were linked to suspicious buyers.

“They’re going to capture a lot more activity now,” said Jason Chorlins, a risk advisor at Miami accounting firm Kauffman Rossin. “The majority of this activity is done via wire transfer.”