‘Govt broke own laws in passport scheme’

Anastasiades: Those who should be ‘losing sleep’ over the South’s citizenship-for-cash scheme are the ones who exploited it

THE Greek Cypriot government broke its own laws “countless times” when granting citizenship to foreign investors under the so-called golden passport scheme, an inquiry has found.

The news agency Reuters reported that a South Cyprus government-appointed commission said the scheme, from which almost 7,000 people benefited, was running in a “vacuum” for more than a decade without “adequate oversight and with no checks and balances”.

“It’s obvious the Citizenship for Investment programme operated from 2007 to 2020 with gaps and shortcomings, an inadequate legislative framework and almost no regulative framework,” Myron Nikolatos, an ex-chief justice who headed the inquiry, said.

The Greek Cypriot Council of Ministers, “responsible for rubber-stamping applications”, broke the law on “countless occasions”, Mr Nikolatos said, calling it “mass illegality”.

The South’s right-wing government, which championed the scheme before it was pulled, said the report appeared to ascribe “no malfeasance or criminal responsibility on the cabinet”.

A spokesman said, however, that the Greek Cypriot government would “punish by example” any person involved in criminal or disciplinary transgressions related to the affair.

South Cyprus’s scheme was revamped and “aggressively marketed from 2013 onwards” until allegations of possible corruption highlighted in an expose by Al Jazeera last year forced authorities to pull the plug.

“The submission of the report closes, or ought to close, a protracted cycle of political tension and a toxic climate which primarily targeted [Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades] and his government,” spokesman Kyriakos Koushos said.

Under the scheme, a “Republic of Cyprus” passport, seen as a ticket to visafree travel and the right to live and work in other EU member states, was granted to applicants investing at least two million euros.

The scheme was said to be popular with Russians and investors from Asia.

But more than half the passports should not have been granted, the board of inquiry said according to the Reuters report, though acknowledging it was now “virtually impossible to reverse that”.

Those passports were issued primarily to family dependants of principal investors, Reuters said.

In 85 other cases, the inquiry suggested citizenship be rescinded altogether for either “criminal or other offences”. The individuals were not identified.

The report, which is not binding, was handed over to the South’s Attorney-General Georgios Savvides on Monday. An earlier interim report on the same subject was given to police for perusal last month, Reuters wrote.

Mr Nikolatos said authorities continued issuing passports to dependants even though the Greek Cypriot government was warned in 2015 and 2016 by its chief legal adviser that the practice was possibly illegal.

On Tuesday Mr Anastasiades said those who should be “losing sleep” over the South’s citizenship-for-cash scheme are the ones who exploited it.

“Unfortunately, it was an enduring failure on behalf of respective governments to carefully look into the gaps, shortfalls, and weaknesses exploited by devious individuals who should not be sleeping peacefully,” Mr Anastasiades said according to a report by the Cyprus Mail.

It added that Mr Anastasiades “will not hesitate to assume his administration’s share of responsibility”.