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Residency Leaked docs - Malta Cash for Passports

Martin Everson

Offshore Retiree
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Jan 2, 2018
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Super-rich Russians, Chinese and Saudis have secured unrestricted access to the EU via a Maltese cash-for-passports scheme that requires them to spend less than three weeks in the country, a leak from a passport brokerage has revealed.

The cache of thousands of emails and documents from Henley & Partners provides an unprecedented window into the mechanics of so-called “golden passport” schemes, whereby countries sell citizenship to wealthy foreigners.

The leak reveals how some applicants seeking to buy a Maltese passport through a government investor scheme were able to create a pretence that they were “resident” in the country for a full year by renting apartments and then leaving them empty.

The loophole enabled some customers, for an outlay of more than €1m under the scheme, to successfully claim they had a “genuine link” to Malta – a key legal requirement – while spending just a couple of weeks holidaying there and making a few other superficial gestures such as renting a yacht or donating to a local charity.

The disclosures are likely to alarm the European commission, which recently initiated the opening steps of potential legal proceedings against Malta over its sale of golden passports. The commission has accused Malta of selling citizenship – which enables full access to the EU – to individuals with little or no connection to the country.

The Maltese government rejects any suggestion that its residency requirement is a sham. It argues that it, rather than the EU, has the final legal say over who can be issued with a passport, and that applicants are security-checked before receiving a residence permit.

But Henley’s files reveal that in the early years of the scheme, many applicants told the government upfront that they planned to develop only the most superficial links to the country, with most disclosing that they planned to spend just a few weeks in Malta during the supposed 12-month residency period.

The Henley data has been shared with a consortium of media partners, including the Guardian, by the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation. The non-profit was founded two years ago and named after a Maltese anti-corruption journalist who was murdered in 2017.

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Some of the properties that were rented were significantly smaller than the size an applicant’s family would realistically have required had they planned to live in the property. In one case, a Chinese national rented a two-bedroom apartment for €1,500 a month despite applying for citizenship for 12 people, including six children.

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AFAIK from newspapers(been a while since living there), the place is like mafialand. But the heavy ones moved to Dubai and Monaco now. After all they're high-class criminals, not small-time crooks.
There are still a few banks and emi under fire. Investigators say the mafiosi went frequently at that bank to deposit bags full of 500€ without any qualms o_O and millions were moved around through an emi via igaming, all without issues. :rolleyes: the very same emi that would lock your account for undocumented 20usd coming from another country...
 
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For small Country this type of program is bread-earner. If the person is not high profile criminal most of the countries give them residency/citizenship.


This guy is convicted of fraud still Antigua gives him citizenship in record time.

Another example


Moral of the stories.
Money Talks..

Media shouts for a week or two. Then everything will fine.
actually I heard of a unofficial Mexican cash for passport scheme obviously involving bribes

Whatever if you are a criminal you will want brazilian citizenship
 
better than that.... Brazil don't extradite their citizens
It should be noted that Brazil is resistant
when extraditing it's citizens, Provided, if they are native-born citizens, or have received their citizenship through a parent. naturalized Brazilians have been extradited before, and is not a guarantee way of avoiding extradition.
There are however notable past exceptions, such as the the British criminal Ronnie Biggs.

Brazilians are in general, quite friendly to foreigners. However unless you make an effort to learn the language and develop a deep understanding of Brazilian culture, then you'll still be seen as a foreigner. And the discretionary way in which the law applies extradition to naturalized Brazilians reflects this behavior.
 
Brazilians are in general, quite friendly to foreigners. However unless you make an effort to learn the language and develop a deep understanding of Brazilian culture, then you'll still be seen as a foreigner. And the discretionary way in which the law applies extradition to naturalized Brazilians reflects this behavior.
Something here sounds familiar with other South American countries i.e. Uruguay, Paraguay etc.
 

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