From the use of offshore accounts and secrecy jurisdictions to enabling lawyers and anonymous companies, the purchase of apartment 32G in the Trump International demonstrates the urgent need to address the ways in which opaque companies can move funds around the world at ease, facing no tough questions on provenance or legitimacy.

Every country should require lawyers who carry out transactions for their clients and the real estate sector to know who their clients are and the source of their funds as a precaution to make sure that suspect funds are not being laundered into the property market.

Since 2001, American real estate agents have been required to establish money laundering checks, but the Treasury Department has failed to enforce this. This should change, and Treasury should immediately require companiesto disclose their ultimate owners when purchasing U.S. real estate.

Global Witness is also calling on law enforcement in the U.S., France and Portugal to investigate the signs of money laundering in the purchase of the apartment and the seeming embezzlement of public funds by the Congolese Presidential family, enabled by Veiga. If appropriate, law enforcement should hold the Trump Organization and Donald Trump accountable for their actions. Congressional committees looking into such issues should likewise investigate these allegations and hold any wrongdoers to account.

This scheme also raises serious questions that must be answered by Trump companies attached to the deal, K&L Gates, the law firm representing the seller of 32G, and the other banks and real estate agents involved. They should explain why they proceeded with these transactions despite the apparent risks of money laundering and corruption. At a minimum, now that the source of funds has been revealed, they should stop doing business with the companies linked to Claudia Sassou-Nguesso and José Veiga.

The Trump International Management Corporation and the Trump International Hotel & Tower Condominium must clarify the source of the payments for condominium maintenance of apartment 32G since May 2015 as well as Donald Trump’s role in these companies. This information is of particular public interest as there is a risk that these companies may be currently enabling money laundering of public funds embezzled by the Congolese President’s daughter and benefitting in the process.

Claudia Sassou-Nguesso and Veiga used a wide range of tools of the global financial system in order to siphon, hide and potentially launder millions of dollars that should have been spent investing in a better future for Congolese citizens.

The consequences of transactions like these can be devastating, often for people battling poverty and corrupt governments in places like Congo, where leaders give public contracts to the least scrupulous investors and the most opportunistic criminals. The U.S. and Europe have an obligation to address their own systems’ loopholes that enable corruption and money laundering, allowing notorious political elites like the Sassou-Nguessos to enjoy the luxurious spoils of apparently ill-gotten gains abroad.