Mayor Andy Stern suggested last week that Realtors have “the absolute obligation” to submit offers to sellers and that “it would be a sad day if we started investigating everyone’s past in Malibu or started discriminating against them.” Did he realize he was commenting on the sale of property to an Equatoguinean government minister who was laundering money stolen from his country’s treasury?
If California’s code of ethics for Realtors requires what Mayor Stern suggests, it might be time to bring it into conformity with federal laws designed to prevent money laundering.
In this regard, the experience of Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C. might be instructive. A bank official who, like Mayor Stern, preferred not to ask questions, allowed President Obiang and members of his family to deposit millions of dollars of stolen wealth into the bank. A federal investigation resulted in one of the largest fines against a bank in U.S. history. As a consequence, Riggs Bank, which was founded in 1836, no longer exists.
In the case of corruption and human rights abuse in Equatorial Guinea, it’s not necessary that we do the investigating that Mayor Stern thinks is so inappropriate. Human Rights Watch has done it for us. On the day Olivia Damavandi’s story appeared in The Malibu Times online, Human Rights Watch issued a 107-page report on Equatorial Guinea. The citizens of Malibu could learn a lot about one of their neighbors by reading it.