Arabian Business: “So why have dozens of Gulf residents, including royal family members, said they are ready to sign up for the scheme to get citizenship of a small island state 80km south of Sicily and 333km north of Libya?”
The most interesting bits of this article are quoted below, including the offensive remarks made to Arabian Business by Eric Major, CEO of Henley & Partners, about the democratically-elected Opposition in Malta.
His argument is a variation in different words of the government’s ‘the Opposition is working against the national interest’.
Whether Eric Major inspired the Maltese government or the Maltese government inspired Eric Major is a moot point.
It doesn’t change the fact that what we have here is a commercial operator in cahoots with a government, speaking as though Malta is some Gulf state dictatorship where you can brush off and insult any opposition and ignore the wishes and views of the public completely because they count for nothing.
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From the article in Arabian Business:
(…)
The scheme in question is the Malta Individual Investor Programme, which was announced and signed into law by the Maltese government in November last year. Applicants are required to make a one-time, lump sum contribution amounting to at least €650,000 ($885,906). Assuming they pass all necessary security checks, they will then be handed a Maltese passport.
So why have dozens of Gulf residents, including royal family members, said they are ready to sign up for the scheme to get citizenship of a small island state 80km south of Sicily and 333km north of Libya? The answer lies in the fact that Malta joined the European Union in 2004, so holders of Maltese passports get to enjoy visa-free access to more than 145 countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and all 28 EU-Schengen countries.
“We have at least 20 or 25 people in the pipeline ready to go… they are already convinced. Of course, that depends on the fine print but the money is not the issue,” says Yann Mrazek, managing partner of Dubai-based law firm M Associates of Law, which is offering the scheme to high net worth individuals in the Middle East.
“We anticipate the €650,000 for one application, but I also anticipate for the country to request a real estate investment of no less than €350,000… So roughly a total of around €1m for due diligence and processing. It is not small change but… it looks like a good proposal,” he says.
(…)
The scheme has proved popular among wealthy individuals in the Middle East as it gives unlimited travel access among the Schengen Area of Europe and access to investment opportunities within the EU. Last summer, the UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan claimed Emiratis faced issues travelling within the region.
“Too often, Emirati citizens are stopped at European borders and turned away because of unclear, complex, and restrictive visa-regulations,” he said while on a visit to Austria and Greece.
(…)
Eric Major, CEO of Henley & Partners, the UK-based firm which also has offices in the Middle East and which is helping the Maltese government with the implementation of the scheme, says it is unlikely the opposition political parties will be successful in derailing the scheme.
“I don’t think they will succeed in blocking it,” Major says. “They are establishing concern in the marketplace so hindering Malta’s ability to run a successful programme. The legal merit of their position is hogwash, it has no legal strength as you can’t revoke passports once they have been granted.”
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http://www.arabianbusiness.com//for-sale-eu-passports-537637.html
And Manduca frets about Putin.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140207/local/chase-every-vote-grech-tells-pl-delegates.505896#.UvVA2cu9KSM
One of the cardinal rules of any advisor is to never give advice to individuals on foreign legislation. Another is to never opine on possible future changes in legislation, because it is the government of that day that legislates.
Henley & Partners had better be careful. They are opening themselves to the possibility of legal action for mis-selling, misinformation and negligence.
How so? Who would sue?
The future government of Malta.
I can understand that a wealthy sheik might never have read Latin, but an English CEO worth his salt should be learned enough to understand that:
Quid datum est a lege, numquid auferetur ex lege.
Sorry to disappoint, Fido, but there is only one ‘quid’ Henley and Friends do understand and it comes up 200 million times.
“Chi bolla, sbolla” they say in Italian.
“Min jorbot jista’ jholl” nghidu bil-Malti.
Where are the ‘mitna ghall-barrani’ brigade? It seems they are in mute mode. If the PN does not reply to this guy we deserve being the object of derision by Henley & Something.
Mario de Marco says the PN’s resolve has been “overtaken by events”. How convenient.
I’m seriously starting to think they want to lose the next election too. Like Ireland when they kept winning Eurovision.
1: citizenship should not be for sale for any consideration.
2: It should only be given to those who qualify under three sets of rules – one for other EU citizens, one for Commonwealth citizens, and one for all other aliens.
3: The test as to whether you qualify or not is whether you are domiciled in Malta or not. Only Maltese domiciles should be able to qualify.
What is domicile? It is where you consider your home to be.
Dirty money is not wealth for the county’s coffers. It is officially-sanctioned crime money.
I hope this isn’t Mario de Marco’s attempt to undermine Simon Busuttil’s leadership by acting as a conduit for the other side’s propaganda.
We’re sick of these power games.
http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/09/20/libya-to-invest-ld-38-million-in-centre-to-train-libyans-in-malta/#axzz2sfgqyGk8
Bedfellows Muscat, Mallia and Major – compatible arrogance.
“They are establishing concern in the marketplace so hindering Malta’s ability to run a successful programme.” – Eric Major.
Proof, if one was needed, that Henley & Something see our citizenship as a commodity or a good, traded in a marketplace, on which they will net a commission for each sale transaction.
Eric Major can’t very well say that Malta is hindering Henley and Partners’ business by allowing a modicum of democratic activity, can he? But that is what he really means.
Henley and Partners is running Malta’s government as a business, not providing a service to it.
Actually what is hogwash is Mr Major’s assertion that passports granted under such a programme cannot be revoked.
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur
I believe that even Canada, under the new regulations, may be contemplating withdrawing citizenship from those ‘new’ citizens who become involved in terrorist or similar activities.
I don’t understand how Muscat thinks he can get away with lying to us all.
No matter how many times he tells us that it isn’t as easy as we fear, or it isn’t as cheap as we fear, those advertising this “product” say the exact opposite.
And why wouldn’t they. This is nothing like all the other citizenship schemes because if it were then all these people queuing up to get a Maltese passport would have gone with the others before. They wouldn’t have had any reason to wait for Malta.
He is more than sure that he can get away with it because people actually voted him in.
‘NOTHING IS BUT WHAT IS NOT’ – Macbeth
And one for the Police Force.
They also serve who only stand and wait – John Milton
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabian-woman-dies-after-male-medics-stopped-from-entering-femaleonly-university-campus-9115226.html
So Malta is now officially the EU’s Trojan horse.
In the Chinese Year of the Horse and under Greek Presidency, for full dramatic effect.
Completely correct.
Henley and Partners are repeating, in a cruder fashion, what Maltese constitional legal experts have declared on the illegality of the mass revocation of citizenship.
[Daphne – That is NOT the point here, David.]
Are you sure you’re a law student? No wonder this country is falling apart when our law students are as thick as you. You repeatedly miss the crux of an argument and your entries are full of non sequiturs.
David, the point here is that an Arabian news website is advertising sale of Maltese citizenship and pointing out the benefits of such a purchase. It’s treating our citizenship as a product.
Another point is that the CEO of a private company considers Malta to be a third world country and certainly not democratic when he talks about how the ‘Opposition is talking hogwash’ and then proceeds to lie about revocation of passports. It’s as if Malta’s people are too ignorant to think for themselves and recognize that he’s lying (he’s right, most will not realize this).
Just over a year ago we were looked upon with admiration by people and countries all over the world. Today we are ridiculed by everyone.
Jien qed nassumi li l-ebda Ciniz mhu ser jinghata id-dritt li jixtri ic-cittadinanza Maltija peress li dan ma jistax ikollu cittadinanza doppja skond il-ligi ta’ pajjizu.
B’hekk qed nassumi ukoll li bid-due diligence li ser jaghmlu Henley and Partners u li ser ikun l-aktar ‘intensiv’ fid-dinja Cinizi li ser japplikaw ghal passaport Malti ser jigu skwalifikati awtomatikament ghax dawn ikunu qed jiprovaw jiksbu il-passaport Malti bi ksur tal-ligi ta’ pajjizhom u b’hekk ikunu qed isiru kriminali prospettivi.
They will renounce their own, that is permissible.
And not be allowed into their own country? One would think that the Chinese government will not look too kindly at those who renounce their Chinese citizenship amounting to a snub at their ‘former’ government and Communist Party!
Qed tassumi hazin. Digà hemm cittadini Cinizi b’passaport Malti.
U kun af ohra: Il-ligi Maltija mhijhiex soggetta ghal-ligi ta’ pajjizi ohra dwar ic-cittadinanza tac-cittadini taghhom.
Biex nispjega ruhi, hija decizjoni 100% ta’ Malta li taghti passaport Malti lil xi hadd li ghandu passaport Ciniz. Imbaghad il-passaport doppju min-naha tac-Cina huwa problema tac-Cina.
Hemm pajjizi ohra li ma jippermettux cittadinanza doppja. Per ezempju Franza. Fil-prattika, dan ifisser li jekk int taqa’ taht il-ligi Franciza ghal kwalunkwe sitwazzjoni (taxxa, moviment minn fruntiera ghall-ohra, reat, kontravenzjoni, prigunerija etc.), ma tistax tiddikjara li int cittadin tal-istat l-iehor. Franza tikkunsidrak bhala cittadin taghha.
Bir-rispett kollu, tistghu tghiduli kif jista’ jsir “due diligence” sew jekk access ghal-informazzjoni f’pajjiz enormi komunista hija kollha ikkontrollata minn gvern li ma jaccettax cittadinanza doppja?
H&P: Can we check whether Mr Long Woo has a clean conduct certificate?
Chinese government official: What do you need it for?
How can they screen a Bosnian or Serb when there was a bloody war in Yugoslavia?
Can anyone, for example, know how many daughters a Saudi prince killed in his swimming-pool for putting his family name into disrepute? These guys can literally get away with murder in their OWN country.
Proper due diligence is possible only where there are democratic structures and the rule of law, and the institutions that go with them.
Due diligence relates to the source of the cash payment for henley and partners’ services providing a passport and fees to Muscat’s government for the passports themselves.
Henley and Partners don’t care about drowned daughters and other such trivialities. Their interest is i. Making sure they don’t get into trouble themselves. The rest is our problem.
Try getting information about a Swede from any private or public office in Sweden, and you would come to know the true meaning of DATA PROTECTION in practice.
Correct, I couldn’t agree with you more.
I still can’t see why the Chinese or Russians would be so desperate for a passport. London is full of foreigners who live there on a residence visa. Why is Abramlovich there, amongst others? Because it benefits everyone.
The only people going to be buying Maltese passports are the same type of people who bought passports after the Second World War and ended up in places like Argentina and Brazil.
It is a myth that no Chinese hold dual citizenship, just as it is a myth that the People’s Republic is what it says on the tin.
@H&P:
1)The people who make laws will be the same people who will change those same laws.
2)All passports have expiry dates.Illgotten passports won’t be renewed.
What passport does Eric Major hold? Why is his country not selling passports as well?
So we will have thousands of people with a right to vote in a country where one election was won by one thousand votes difference?
And will real Maltese citizens now be subject to harassment at borders now that the passport is associated with undesirables? Maybe Maltese will be turned away like we turn away Africans.
And did Henley bribe a government of a European country. It comes down to a simple fact though – EU allowing it. If EU allow it, then we might as well make the most of a failed ideal.
If EU did have ideals – they would seriously question Malta’s continued membership in the EU. A Chinese stooge, run by a political party financed by a company selling EU passports.
Malta is an EU country which feels closer to the world’s two largest dictatorships. Pity Qaddafi is not around – we would have two dictatorships and a pariah state to boot. Just when you thought we ran out of ideas for EU funding fraud – we pulled out a real rabbit out of the hat.
That loser mafioso lowlife at the airport got one thing right though – when he called us ‘Ruba Galline’.
His country does not sell passports because they do not have a “visionary Leader who understands globalization”.
He is a Quebec Canadian, previously employed by HSBC Vancouver, redundant when Canada stopped its investor program in 2012.
That Major speaks commercially about Malta’s passport programme is hardly tolerable. That he meddles in Maltese politics is a major and intolerable interference in the affairs of this country.
Ironically, he would have been slapped into jail during our PM’s idol, Mintoff’s, reign under the infamous law of ‘indhil barrani.’
If we’re going through with the IIP scheme regardless, why is Henley & Partners doing the due diligence as well as processing the applications?
Because they get to control the whole process, offering their undesirable clients an end-to-end, seamless process, and get a cut on every transaction at every stage of the deal from accepting and processing applications, to running nominal due diligence that ensures Henley and Partners is protected, to providing mandatory health insurance and selling or renting the required property.
I simply cannot understand the Opposition letting Henley & Partners speak in this way.
I think it is outrageous that a company coming in from the outside has the gall to criticise and disparage the Opposition of a democratic country from its position of alliance with the government.
I even find it outrageous that they should speak in the name of Malta as though they were elected to govern.
Have we all become spineless?
Yes.
“Have we all become spineless?” YES
The Nationalist Party needs to keep steadfast and resolute on its original statement, and hang the money. I would vote for them regardless.
Two wrongs and countless amendments do not make this deal any sweeter. H&P seem like Trotters Independent Trading.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/dual-nationality.htm
Dual citizenship is a grey area in China.
Henley and Friends of Friends more likely
You here crack me up. While yes this is truly not the way to bring revenue for the country and I am personally totally against it for so blatantly abusing the ‘fair us’ policy of the EU. As well, generally speaking, bringing in easy money only makes people more lazy than they already are.
Yet once a citizenship is granted the only way it can be revoked is on an individual bases and were any of the requirements and declarations made upon application proven to have been false.
Having said that: what makes people think that H&P are really going to sell 1800 even over the next 4 years?
Lets say they manage to sell 500. For H&P thats still brilliant business. I note here there was no mention of the 150K bonds therefore Im assuming that H&P do not get a commission on that cause they only focus on what makes them money. hehe … the 680K I believe at 4% and the 350K real estate commission. Thats still a profit of 20 million. Now how many business you know make that? Let alone if its just one small revenue stream among the many.
Yet for JM even thatwill not be enough to win him the next election. It brings the country 125 million per year. True, but we are running a deficit of roughly 5%; 2% above the euro red line. Thats a good 50 million gap that is a must. In fact the entire revenue from these hypothetical passport sales would just about cover our deficit.
And I am being optimistic that they will sell 125 per year.
Reason being is that:
a. the other countries would be foolish to sit back and let malta rake in at their expense. In fact I think JM must have planned a firesale over the next year before competiotion sets in. I quite suspect he used Canada’s numbers as a guideline. Canada had an investors program in fact even called so for 800K that they had to shut down because it was over subscribed. some 1500 in one quarter. But Canada is next door to the largest, homogeneous and most sought after market in the world. Companies even tiny ones would kill to gain proximity. Not to mention that after 4 years one gains canadian citizenship meaning more freedom of access to the US. Now compare that to a hotch potch of languages, rules and red tape currently floating between bankruptcy and break up.
b. would I spend 1m on a passport with the possibility of an EU break up and end up on a rock of 500K people and aa few goats?