AUDIT OFFICE LAUNCES ADDITIONAL PROBE INTO 18 PASSPORTS GRANTED TOGETHER

 Cyprus Mail 15 October 2020 - by Elias Hazou

A new probe by the auditor-general into the citizenship-by-investment scheme will focus specifically on 18 passports given to individuals linked to the casino in Limassol.

Marios Petrides, an official with the Audit Office, said Thursday they’ve identified 18 names of directors and shareholders of the same casino, all of whom were approved for Cypriot citizenship by the cabinet – on the same day.

According to the government watchdog’s preliminary findings, the 18 in question appear not to have invested “a single euro” either in purchasing a residence here or any other form of investment – a precondition for being eligible for citizenship under the programme.

“It’s inconceivable that passports were given gratuitously to directors or shareholders of a company that had bid in an open tender procedure and won the contract [for the casino],” Petrides told reporters.

“Any investment in the context of the citizenship-by-investment programme should have been made by the investor personally and individually, and not by the company in which he was either a shareholder or director.”

Last month it emerged – since confirmed by the government – that 23 approved citizenship applications contained instructions from the interior minister for the process to be fast-tracked.

Commenting on this at the time, Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said that for 20 of these 23 cases it was decided to speed them along because they concerned large-scale investments “that had to do with the best interests [of the Republic], as we see it.”

It’s understood that the 18 casino-related cases now flagged by the auditor-general are part of those 23.