Photo of NYC’s Billionaires’ Row in 2020: Wikimedia commons

State Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assembly Member Emily Gallagher on Tuesday introduced legislation that would help shine a light on the money behind Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) and anonymous shell companies. The new bill would help uncover assets of international oligarchs, trace tax evaders and help hold bad landlords accountable by requiring LLCs to disclose to the NYS Department of State the names and addresses of their beneficial owners.

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The names of some wealthy property owners in New York City will soon be made public under a new state law signed last month by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In response to reports of illegal home conversions in Rockland County, state lawmakers drafted a bill to prevent buyers from purchasing homes through limited-liability companies. The new law requires the name and address of each member of the LLC for both buyers and sellers in New York State. According to the Wall Street Journal, the change in law may affect buyers of Manhattan real estate who wish to remain undisclosed.

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Atlantic Writer, National Book Award winner and MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipient Ta-Nehisi Coates recently made an appearance in real estate news; Coates, who is among today’s most prominent writers on African-American issues, and his wife recently purchased a landmarked five-bedroom townhouse in Prospect-Lefferts Garden for $2.1 million. Not one to miss an opportunity to explore a facet of cultural history, the couple worked an interesting story into the LLC they used to purchase the property, DNAinfo tells us.

Buyers commonly register Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs) to purchase property in order to conceal their identities (celebrities, for example, or when making a big-ticket buy), and LLC names are often mundane, using the name of the property itself. But the Coateses LLC, “Ellen and William Craft Excursions LLC” has an inspiring tale behind it: The Crafts were an escaped slave couple from Georgia in the 19th century. Disguised as a white male slave owner and his slave, they escaped to Philadelphia in 1868.

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