Christian Kalin: more than 200 signed up for Maltese citizenship, “netting the government $200 million”

Published: December 14, 2014 at 12:24am

This article in The New York Times quotes Christian Kalin of Henley & Partners, saying that “more than 200” signed up for Maltese passports, “netting the (Maltese) government $200 million”.

passports




40 Comments Comment

  1. canon says:

    I find it far- fetched.

  2. Peritocracy says:

    The debt is going down so fast it’s making me dizzy.

  3. bernie says:

    They are supposed to be 200 talents. May Mr. Prime Minister please just name one ?

  4. Ghoxrin Punt says:

    And if true, exactly where has that money gone? Certainly not into Edward Scicluna’s coffers or he would boasted about it.

    • ciccio says:

      You are right. If he boasted about Eur 20 million as a way to reduce the public debt, imagine what he would have done about Eur 200 million.

      How many 2 cents is Eur 200 million?

      Just trying to figure out how many press conferences that amounts to…

    • vic says:

      Where ? How else could we have received our 58 cents ?

  5. Arnold Layne says:

    And when is the list going to be published?

  6. matt says:

    The 200 passports is not far fetched at all because Mallia never followed the criteria published in parliament by Muscat.

    The question is where did the money go? MLP is now sitting on a war chest and it is going to be financially impossible for the PN to match them in the next campaign.

    • Asclepius says:

      Money buys a good campaign when in opposition and when one can lure fools into believing that pigs can fly, but when in government, results, competency and peace of mind, are stronger than any campaign.

    • Xjim Purtani says:

      The majority of the electorate in every democracy are those whostruggle to make ends meet, or those who are only slightly better. They are more likely to vote on comparative ‘value for money’ of governments.

      So put some of this money in the people’s pockets, in whatever form, enough to generate the perception that we are economically better off than under Gonzi, and it will works wonder for Joseph. Sparaturi will appear to have happened centuries ago.

      Of course, people above this income bracket have the option to consider other things when voting. But unfortunately for them, there is not enough of them to sway it. This is the same in every democracy, and may serve a lesson for a future PN government.

    • Jozef says:

      The next campaign won’t be about finances.

    • Augustus says:

      matt, it’s up to the people whether you win or lose an election.

      The 2013 election was won by promises of meritocracy, transparency, good governance etc. and the people believed Joseph Muscat.

      Now it’s a different story. The people know that he’s a liar and a cheat.

  7. Clueless says:

    That’s only 10% of what they said we’d rake in in the first two years. Hardly worth the damage it caused our reputation globally.

  8. QahbuMalti says:

    If they used that money to prop up Enemalta I might have felt a little better about this country’s future. Handing over our only real power station to the Chinese is little short of suicide.

    We are so going to regret this move.

  9. Freedom5 says:

    “With no residency requirements”. There you go , you idiots at the EU .

  10. J. Agius says:

    No wonder the government is dragging its feet with regards to the law relating to party financing.

  11. Pablo says:

    You wonder why he needed to sell our national interests to Beijing when he has all this passport scam money coming in. Muscat may owe them a lot but Malta owes them nada.

  12. bob-a-job says:

    ‘Passports for profit: British company to make ‘disgusting amounts of money’ from controversial EU passport sale.’ The Independent (UK) 30 January 2014

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/passports-for-profit-british-company-to-make-disgusting-amounts-of-money-from-controversial-eu-passport-sale-9094251.html

  13. George Grech says:

    Mhux suppost kien hemm riferenza ghal dan id-dhul fil-budget ?

  14. Tabatha White says:

    Ah, it’s got a 2 in it.

    Published via CNBC yesterday.

    How convenient.

    How “positive.”

    My jaw hasn’t dropped.

  15. Tom Double Thumb says:

    Mr Kalin says that 200 people applied and were approved for Maltese citizenship.

    Can he give us some more details?

    How much actually went to the Malta government?

    How much commission did Henley take?

    How much was paid to other agents?

    Where did the applications come from?

    How many were main applicants?

    How many were dependents?

    Who vetted them?

    Has the money been passed on to the Malta government?

    Why did so few details of this income appear in the government’s 2015 Budget? .

    Without these details how can we be sure that the number of applicants was indeed 200? or 1000? or 20?

  16. Freedom5 says:

    Back to Malliagate .

    I am convinced that Michael Cassar would not accept to be Commissioner of Police , serving under Minister Mallia.

    Muscat had already signalled that Mallia was not at all involved so why ask him to resign ? A condition for Cassar to accept the post was for Mallia to go.

    Now we have it from The Malta Independent , that Cassar was offered PC in July but he declined .

    http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-12-14/local-news/Cassar-refused-Police-Commissioner-job-last-July-6736127285

  17. Jozef says:

    http://maltarightnow.com/news/2014/12/14/esklussiva-il-progett-tal-monorail-il-gvern-laburista-jiftiehem-mac-cinizi-li-jahbi-ftehim-ta-e1-6-biljun/

    That will be the day, using EU funds to finance Chinese state owned companies, the utter scam.

    ‘..Dan il-Memorandum of Understanding bejn il-Gvern Malti u dak Ċiniż jagħlaq bl-aktar mod perikoluż meta fi klawsola oħra tiegħu intitolata “Confidentiality” jgħid li “The Parties shall keep the execution of this MOU confidential and shall not furnish copies of it to anyone, or disclose its contents unless agreed otherwise. Information and documents given by any party to any other party shall be kept confidential by such other party unless a prior written consent has been served.”…’

    How longer are we supposed to take this in our stride? The man’s an insult to the nation. This level of scheming behind our back must be some form of addiction.

    What gets to me is how he can’t even subscribe to anything proper and realistic, disrupting any possible planning of this place.

    As Marlene Farrugia defined it, the banality of evil.

  18. Watcher of lies says:

    The sale-of-citizenship programme, when and if it is whistle-blown, will be the next *gate.

    Or maybe the Konrad-gate once the secret China-PL deal is whistle-blown too. The race is on.

    Both will eclipse Mallia-gate.

  19. kev says:

    The New York Times – the rag which tells little packets of truth bundled in a pack of lies. No wonder its circulation has nosedived more than any other corporate news-manufacturing rag.

    The deceptive paradigm is strong in the NYT and you’d never notice the layers of lies if you haven’t been paying attention.

    Suffice to say that it is mainly rich American citizens who are buying passports elsewhere for reasons which have never crossed your minds (because you rely on the corporate newsfeed).

    Only the destitute want an American passport and they want it for free.

  20. Charlemagne says:

    Gvern trasparenti, suppost.

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