Skift Take
In spite of being warned not to continue an illegal practice, numerous high-ranking Cypriot federal government authorities persisted in carrying out a scheme to grant desired passports in exchange for cash.
Rashaad Jorden
Cyprus’s government broke the law on many events in approving citizenship to thousands of individuals in a now discredited passports-for-cash plan, an official query has actually discovered.
The east Mediterranean island awarded citizenship to 6,779 individuals between 2007 and 2020, the vast bulk of them Russians, prior to the plan was ditched. A lot of were provided by the conservative administration which assumed power in 2013 and was re-elected in 2018.
“In the view of the committee throughout the product time there was mass illegality … surpassing the pertinent law on the part of the council of ministers, or the councils of ministers (of the time) and others concerning citizenship to relative ocf financiers,” stated Myron Nikolatos, an ex-chief justice who headed the government-appointed, independent commission of questions.
Cyprus’s council of ministers, or cabinet, was responsible for rubber-stamping passport approvals under the financial investment plan which ran up until Nov. 2020.
Of the 6,779 who were granted citizenship, about 53 percent of them were relatives of the principal investor and were incorrectly released with passports, Nikolatos stated.
He said authorities continued releasing passports to dependents although the federal government was alerted in 2015 and 2016 by its primary legal consultant that the practice was possibly prohibited.
Nikolatos turned over the results of a nine-month investigation to the island’s attorney-general on Monday.
A representative for the Cypriot federal government said it needed to study the report’s findings and would have no additional remark for the time being.
Cyprus shut down the scheme in late 2020 following disclosures that not only did authentic financiers gain from it but likewise fugitives from justice or politically connected individuals, who would be granted a passport for a minimum 2 million euros ($2.41 million) financial investment.
An interim variation of the heavily redacted report issued in April found fugitives piggy-backing on an application by their partner along with cases of residential or commercial properties being offered numerous times over to various investors through “cancel and release” agreements as soon as citizenship had been acquired.
A Cypriot passport grants visa-free travel, working and residency rights throughout the 27-nation European Union.
The European Commission released infringement treatments against Cyprus over the plan in 2015, arguing that approving EU citizenship for pre-determined payments, without any genuine ties to the state, undermined the integrity of EU citizenship.
(Reporting by Michele Kambas; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
This article was written by Michele Kambas from Reuters and was legally certified through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [e-mail secured]