Purchased in 2012 for just $14.7 million, this house is owned by a shadowy company linked to Nigerian businessman Kola Aluko, "a figure in an investigation of that country's former oil minister." Aluko also owns a $23.5-million estate in Bel Air and a now-famous, $50-million "ultra-yacht" that Beyoncé and Jay Z reportedly rented earlier this year to cruise the Mediterranean (for $900,000 a week).

Here's one straight from the megamansion mogul himself, Mohamed Hadid. In 2013, a corporate entity connected to Hadid sold Le Palais to a corporate entity connected to Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, a daughter of authoritarian Uzbek president Islam Karimov—"a ruler whose human rights record is frequently compared to North Korea’s," the New York Times wrote earlier this year. Sources added that "The Karimov family faces corruption investigations in several countries," but Karimov-Tillyaeva is probably not too worried about it, sheltered within the walls of her 48,000-square-foot residence. Records show that Karimova's shell corporation paid $32.75 million for the 1.09-acre property, which boasts a ballroom that can accommodate well over 100 people, a dedicated swan pond, and a 3,800-square-foot rooftop deck.

Another Hadid production: this single-level contemporary "with a glowing pyramid in a reflecting pool" is owned by a shell corporation linked to film producer Riza Aziz, the stepson of the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, who's "now a target of corruption investigations at home and abroad." The house sold for $17.5 million in 2010 to a shell company connected to a friend of Aziz's, and then that friend sold the company to a shell company owned by Aziz, the New York Times wrote in a February article. The sketchy part is, "Legally, however, the property itself never changed hands. The same shell company appears as owner in the public property records of Los Angeles County. It is as if nothing ever happened."

This place is owned by the Dastel Corporation, which "traces to the family of Mikhail Lesin," a pal of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a major player in the country's media who served as press minister from 1999 to 2004. The "Colonial"-style house sold in 2011 for $13.8 million, according to Redfin. (Dastel is also listed on PropertyShark as the owner of 321 S. Bristol Ave. in Brentwood Park; it purchased the property in February 2012.) Possibly the subject of an investigation (or impending investigation) by the Justice Department at the behest of a Mississippi senator, Lesin turned up dead in a Washington, DC hotel room just last month.

The official owner of this sprawling, 26,000-square-foot residence, TBN Holdings, is connected to Turki bin Nasser, a Saudi prince who, during his tenure in the upper echelons of the country's military, "was involved in arms deals with the aerospace company BAE" and, according to multiple reports, received bribes. He wasn't charged with any crime, though the company who gave him the bribes was.

The NYT found this lavish estate is owned by a company with ties to a former Russian senator named Alexander Sabadash, who received a sentence of six years in prison in Russia for trying to steal public funds. (Property records show New Albion Property Limited as the owner.) Of course, even convicted embezzlers have multiple residences, which is maybe why "A man who answered at the phone number listed for the shell company said the Sabadashes might be renting the house."