[stfu]

Interesting idea - the main thing I would object to is because it's the one place where you can have $4 million of "wealth" tied up in a house and not raise an eyebrow.

If you go to any first world capital/metro region you can spend that money easily at a decent apartment. No matter if it is Hong Kong, Paris or New York, $4m are actually not that much money for decent real estate.

[michaelochurch]

Fair point. The cancer of the global elite has spread to quite a large number of cities: certainly not only London and NYC.

Silicon Valley, I think, is more attractive because if you're going to make over an exiled corrupt official into a corporate executive with a completely different CV and identity, the privacy advantages of a free-standing house are pretty compelling.

Also, it's easier to pull one over on tech people (see: highly talented young people working 80+ hour weeks for tiny pieces of equity). If you need to turn a corrupt official into an executive, you're going to have an easier time of it in some flake-ball VC darling than at Goldman Sachs.

[trhway]

don't forget how easy it is to launder money through internet advertising.