What exactly is this €1 billion in capital that Henley & Partners is talking about?

Henley & Partners has said that Malta’s sale of citizenship programme is “the world’s most successful programme of its kind” – well, it would have to be, given that it is the only one of its kind – and that it has “raised over €1 billion in capital since its launch about 18 months ago”.

The article in the Times of Malta, from which I picked this up, makes no attempt at further enquiry and does not bother explaining to the reader what this €1 billion in capital encompasses.

Is it a reference to the money earned by selling Maltese citizenship? Clearly not, because the government said to us that it has sold Maltese citizenship to just 73 main applicants and 176 of their dependents, and through this it has raised a mere €75 million for the ‘social fund’. Yet if those €1 billion were the money raised by selling citizenship, that would mean around 1,000 main applicants and their dependents have bought citizenship and it would also leave €925 million unaccounted for. That is clearly not so, because our government does not lie to us.

So is Henley & Partners talking about the money those 73 main passports applicants have invested in Malta, when it says the scheme has raised €1 billion already? Hardly, because that would mean they have each ploughed an average of €13.7 million into the Maltese economy.

Is it Henley & Partners who is telling whoppers, then? No, come on – Henley & Partners doesn’t lie, either.

Some answers would be nice.