Article written by by Lisa A. Tyler
National Escrow Administrator
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use.
It does not take long in this business for settlement agents to get to know their competitors. They meet at industry related events and become friendly. In some cases, a competitor is someone they may have worked with. As a result, there is a camaraderie formed. While maintaining confidentiality, settlement agents share their knowledge and experiences with each other as appropriate, and band together to help defend the property rights of legitimate owners as demonstrated in this story.
The Bank Secrecy Act serves as a valuable tool to combat money laundering, but it does not identify all vulnerabilities. As described last month, professional money launderers use entities during the layering process when cleaning funds. They create shell entities — that may appear legitimate — for the sole purpose of concealing the identity of the criminal(s) and cleaning the money.
This article originally appeared on https://fraudinsights.fnf.com/vol18iss04/byline.htm.
