Cyprus revokes 10 more passports after ‘Golden Passport’ Scandal

Cyprus announced on Wednesday that it will withdraw Cypriot passports and citizenship from three investors and seven of their dependents following an investigation into the “Golden Passport” scheme, according to greekreporter.com.

In total, from October 2021 until now, the cabinet has initiated the withdrawal of citizenship from 60 investors and 159 of their dependants.

The government granted passports to over 7,000 people under the Golden Passport scheme which was finally axed in late 2020 after a series of scandals related to the scheme came to light.

An expose by Al Jazeera showed the then-speaker of the House suggesting there would be no problem in securing a passport for a fictitious Chinese investor with a criminal record.

Furthermore, media reports exposed the scandal of Malaysian businessman Jho Low who had been granted a Cypriot passport after buying a luxury villa in the resort of Ayia Napa. He was being accused of being the key player in a multi-billion-dollar theft from a Malaysian state investment fund.

The EU had also criticized Cyprus and called for a halt to the program. There is concern that the so-called Golden Passports may be easily used as a backdoor into the European Union for criminal gangs or government officials to launder massive sums of money or to evade taxes.

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