Recently, the $3.5 million mansion of a Chinese-American in New York was raided by the FBI.

September 3, the Chinese-American female official and her husband were arrested for allegedly using real estate for money laundering and other financial crimes. Just recently, the U.S. Department of the Treasury just issued a new regulation, that is, to combat the illegal behavior of money laundering through the “all-cash purchase of real estate” to implement. And in Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, New York and other places, if in the case of all-cash purchase of real estate without a loan of more than 3 million dollars, will automatically trigger a money laundering investigation.

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 I. FBI raids Long Island mansion
In the early morning hours of July 24, the FBI launched a raid on New York Governor Kathy Hochul's former assistant, Wen Sun, at her house in Manhasset, Long Island, New York. The five-bedroom home, located in a gated community, is valued at approximately $3.5 million.

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No arrests were made during the raid, although the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn had a search warrant at the time. Property records show that the raided mansion was originally purchased by Sun Wen and her husband, Hu Snap, in 2021, but was transferred to a trust in March. Sun Wen, who attended Barnard College and Columbia University, has worked in New York state government for 15 years, under the Hochul administration and former Governor Cuomo's administration, at the age of 40.

Sun Wen initially served in former Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration as chief of staff to a state legislator, and in September 2021 was appointed as an assistant to Governor Hochul, where she was responsible for business development, Asian American affairs, and diversity-related work. in November 2022 she moved to the New York Department of Labor as deputy commissioner, and in March 2023 she left the post. Sources say she was fired for “inappropriate behavior” and referred to law enforcement, but details have not been disclosed. After leaving state government, she became manager of the Austin Ching campaign, which lost the Long Island congressional race. Sun Wen has close ties to Queens Democrats, especially Asian-American lawmakers, and was an ally and senior aide to Meng before he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Two, proven real estate money laundering behavior
On September 3, the FBI confirmed that Wen Sun and Snap Hu were arrested on Long Island as part of a corruption investigation unrelated to the governor. Sun Wen's husband, Hu Snap, operates a liquor store in Flushing, Queens, and has run a number of other businesses over the past 10 years, including a medical device company he founded in the early days of the epidemic.

According to the indictment filed by federal prosecutors, Sun Wen is charged with repeatedly violating the internal rules and procedures of the New York governor's office for improper gain, Hu faces charges of bank fraud and identity abuse conspiracy, and the couple is also charged with money laundering. Prosecutors allege that Sun Wen used the ill-gotten gains to purchase Manhasset real estate, a $2.1 million Hawaii condo and luxury vehicles, including a 2024 Ferrari. The couple is expected to appear in Brooklyn court on Tuesday afternoon. The investigation centers around the value of the properties and the source of the assets, which Sun Wen earned $152,217 in her last year of employment with the Department of Labor.

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New U.S. real estate rules
The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a new rule on August 28, the All-Cash Real Estate Transaction Reporting Rule, which is designed to prevent criminals from using residential real estate transactions to launder money. The new rules will take effect on December 1, 2025 (and January 1, 2026 for investment advisors).

The new rules require real estate professionals to report the true identities of buyers who purchase U.S. homes through shell companies or other legal entities for all-cash, and those identities must be disclosed to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The goal is to stop drug cartels, international criminals and others from using the housing market to launder money, and similar reporting requirements already apply to banks and mortgage lenders.

All-cash real estate transactions are on the rise in the U.S., with 32 percent of home sales paid in cash this January, the highest percentage in nearly 10 years, as homebuyers opt for cash deals to avoid high interest rates due to high mortgage rates. The Treasury's new rules are aimed at increasing transparency rather than cracking down on cash transactions.

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 IV. Trigger Mechanism for Investigating High-Value Real Estate Transactions
In the U.S., the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has stipulated that all-cash purchases of more than $3 million in real estate will automatically trigger money laundering investigations in specific areas such as New York City, the Miami metropolitan area, the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and so on. Real estate brokers, attorneys, developers, and financial institutions are required to report to FinCEN the purchaser's identity, method of payment, and source of funds for residential real estate transactions of $3,000,000 or more without a loan in these areas. These requirements may be adjusted over time and as the market changes.