The City slickers in ‘passports for sale’ storm
WITH smart London offices a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, Henley & Partners has a well-heeled air.
But the firm is the leading player in a ‘passports for sale’ industry which faces damaging allegations it inadvertently helps criminals escape justice – and potentially fuels organised crime, tax evasion and money laundering.
It offers wealthy clients assistance with ‘citizenship by investment’ in safe havens across the Caribbean and EU. Put simply, it effectively helps them to buy passports.
There are many legitimate reasons to do this. It can make travel easier for someone from a country where citizens find it hard to obtain visas, or help to avoid punitive tax regimes.
But critics fear the scheme, many of which Henley & Partners helped to set up and is the agent for, are being used by those who want to escape international sanctions or criminal charges.
And anyone who acquires citizenship in EU territories such as Cyprus, Malta and Austria can then use their new passports to gain access to any other EU country, including the UK.
Earlier this year a report published by the European Council warned that citizenship by investment creates ‘a range of risks for member states... in particular risks to security, as well as risks of money laundering, corruption and tax-evasion’.
Henley & Partners insists it complies with the law of each of the sovereign states in which it operates and that ‘all applicants undergo the strictest due diligence procedures’.
A spokesman claimed it is often accused of wrongdoing because the industry it operates in is misunderstood. They added: ‘Over the past 20 years, Henley & Partners has invested
Star turn: From conference brochure significant time and capital in creating a corporate structure that is wedded to best practice governance and the highest levels of due diligence, even before passing a client over to the consideration of a sovereign state.’
However, in 2009 the firm helped Iranian financier Ali Sadr Hasheminejad gain citizenship in St Kitts and Nevis – which, claim US authorities, he used to avoid international sanctions.
Hasheminejad was arrested in March last year on six counts of bank fraud and scheming to evade US sanctions imposed on Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme – allegations he denies.
Henley & Partners also helped the Indian-born billionaire Mehul Choksi get a passport in Antigua. He was later accused of $2billion fraud charges, which he denies in their entirety.
According to a report last year by the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee, Henley helped a Ukranian politician at a time when he was wanted by Interpol to apply for a new passport in St Kitts and Nevis.
Viacheslav Suprunenko was accused of assault during an armed robbery to recover documents in a business dispute. Henley inists it did not help him and claims the committee’s report is wrong, and that anyone granted citizenship through their programmes is highly vetted.