Germany: a money laundering haven

Germany recently confiscated 77 newly-bought homes under an AML law that came into effect a year earlier. Under the old law, the confiscation wouldn’t have been possible because the scope of predicate crimes was too narrow.  Still, 77 homes bought with dirty money means a lot of banks and attesting notaries have looked the other way. The media calls Germany a money laundering haven. The FATF has long been underwhelmed by Germany’s AML efforts.  We offer a news piece where we highlight this development and append German AML expert comment on the extent to which this might indicate a toughening of German government and financial sector attitudes towards AML going forward.