It is necessary to prevent money laundering through the real estate market to stop the fever of virtual land

Talk to PV Infonetlawyer Hoang Tung – Head of the legal office of Trung Hoa (Hanoi) said: “Vietnamese law has many regulations to prevent money laundering through the real estate market.

Lawyer Hoang Tung discussed with PV Infonet about the case.

Previously, Decree No. 74/2005/ND-CP dated August 1, 2005 of the Government on Anti-Money Laundering was guided by Circular No. 12/2011/TT-BXD dated September 1, 2011 of the Minister. The Ministry of Construction has listed signs of money laundering in the real estate sector, through which the competent state agencies (namely the Anti-Money Laundering Department of the Banking Inspection and Supervision Agency) – The State Bank of Vietnam; the Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department – the Ministry of Construction and the Construction Services of the provinces and centrally-run cities) promptly detect, prevent and take measures to handle.

Some signs can be listed such as: Transaction turnover on the account is not consistent with the financial status or with the information and normal business activities of the customer, or there is a sudden change in sales transaction on the customer’s account, the customer cannot be identified according to the information provided by the customer, or a transaction involves an unidentified party, the transaction is conducted by a related customer related to illegal activities posted on the mass media that the reporting organization knows about or has on the warning list provided by the Ministry of Public Security and competent state agencies, dossiers real estate transactions or records show signs of forgery, real estate transactions are authorized transactions but have no legal basis, addresses of parties involved in transactions are incorrect and changed address compared to previous transactions…”.

Lawyer Hoang Tung assessed: ”After many years of implementation, although it has been able to limit money laundering in the real estate market, the above legal documents still reveal many limitations. , has not “scanned” all the signs of suspicious transactions about money laundering in the real estate sector.

Land fever is widespread. (Illustration)

Lawyer further information, Circular No. 12 of the Minister of Construction has been annulled, Decree No. 74 of the Government has been replaced by Decree No. 116/2013/ND-CP dated October 4, 2013 ( This document is amended and supplemented by Decree No. 87/2019/ND-CP dated November 14, 2019) which has added some signs of suspicious transactions about money laundering in the real estate sector.

Facing the phenomenon of “land fever”, including real estate transfer for money laundering purposes, on August 27, 2019, the Ministry of Construction issued Official Letter No. 1509/BXD-QLN directing the Department of Construction to provinces and centrally run cities shall carry out the work of preventing and combating money laundering in the field of real estate business.

Immediately after that, many Departments of Construction issued documents stipulating specific measures to prevent and combat money laundering in the real estate business.

From the above grounds, lawyer Hoang Tung said: “We can refer to a number of measures as follows:

The first, For businesses providing real estate management services, real estate brokers, and real estate trading floors in the province and city, it is necessary to issue and implement internal regulations on prevention and combat of money laundering. , combating terrorist financing in accordance with the law, reviewing and updating internal regulations on prevention of money laundering and countering terrorist financing (if issued), implementing regulations on customer identification , update customer information; review transactions, customers; apply enhanced measures to high-risk customers; assign staff to prevent and combat money laundering,…; make and send reports on suspicious transactions, report on cash transactions of large value (from 300 million VND or more) to the Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department – the Ministry of Construction and the Department of Prevention and Control. money laundering – The State Bank of Vietnam in accordance with the provisions of the anti-money laundering law, contact the Anti-Money Laundering Department – ​​the State Bank of Vietnam for information and instructions on the lists blacklist, warning list, list of politically influential individuals (PEPs) as required by law.

Second, Inspectors of Departments of Construction of provinces and centrally run cities must strengthen inspection and examination of the implementation of the provisions of the law on prevention and combat of money laundering in the field of real estate business. for enterprises providing real estate management services, real estate brokerage, and real estate trading floors in the province and city”.

“Even so, the problem needs to be addressed at the root. That is, currently in Vietnam, the method of payment by cash is still quite popular. Therefore, in order to effectively prevent money laundering through the real estate market, it is necessary to add regulations that bind the payment of real estate transfer transactions to a certain value that must be done through banks. At the same time, it is also advisable to “tighten” the transfer of real estate through the real estate exchange, “emphasized lawyer Hoang Tung.

Tien Anh