Cyprus has announced today, it has initiated the process to strip passports of 26 individuals acquired citizenships under the investment scheme. These include 9 main investors and 17 family members invested in 9 investment projects.
Cypriot sources, reported by Reuters, said the group of investors include
- 9 Russians,
- 8 Cambodians,
- 5 Chinese nationals,
- 2 Kenyans,
- 1 Malaysian and
- 1 Iranian.
These persons have the right to appeal against the decision to revoke citizenship.
Cyprus rocked by series of scandals last week for granting citizenship to high risk persons, damaging the reputation of the country. The stripping of citizenship came after Cyprus announced investigation into all persons who obtained passports before 2018.
“The Council of Ministers today affirmed the will of the government for strict adherence to the terms and conditions of the Cyprus investment program,” said the Interior Minister
Cyprus announced significant reforms last week saying all investor applicants subjected to Enhanced due diligence checks. The Interior Ministry announced list of categories of persons who cannot apply for CIP and made public specific categories of persons who are not entitled to acquire it. Cypriot citizenship through the Program. These categories are as follows:
- Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) holding a Political Position for the Last 5 Years
- Persons subjected to criminal investigation without charges being charged
- Persons who are subject to criminal investigation and are subject to criminal proceedings
- Persons sentenced to imprisonment for serious offenses (eg public servant bribery, tax evasion, etc.) and the penalty has been prescribed
- Persons linked to legal entities subject to EU restrictive measures eg. shareholders, senior executives of companies included in the list of sanctions
- Persons affiliated with legal entities who have been restricted by the EU, but are no longer associated with eg. shareholders, senior executives of companies that were included in the list of sanctions, which were associated with those companies when the sanctions regime was imposed.
- Persons sanctioned by third countries (eg US, Ukraine, Russia)
- Persons associated with legal entities subject to sanctions by third countries.
- Persons being investigated / indicted for criminal offenses and being sought across Europe by EUROPOL or internationally by INTERPOL.
- Persons investigated / indicted for criminal offenses that are being sought across Europe by EUROPOL or internationally by INTERPOL and are no longer sought.
- Persons subject to sanctions by the UN Security Council.
Cyprus will also take measures severely restrict the promotion of the cyprus citizenship by investment scheme in public places.
This is the first time Cyprus is stripping citizenship of high number of individuals who fraudulently obtained citizenship for investments, bringing disrepute to the country.
Cyprus is not alone and several CBI countries already stripped investors of citizenships before. Bulgaria recently revoked citizenships for not maintaining investments.
