Category: News

The Investment Migration Council (IMC), the global association for Investment Migration, held a series of positive and informative bilateral meetings with representatives of the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Parliamentary Research Service, Member State Permanent Representations, and also took part in a debate on Investment Migration at the European Parliament in Brussels.

The IMC were pleased to engage with policy makers from across the EU institutions to share their insights on how to best achieve the shared objectives of enhanced transparency, cooperation and fairness within Investment Migration globally. We also welcomed the opportunity to demonstrate the fundamental societal and economic benefits of IM programmes sovereign states benefit from such as increased government revenue, employment creation and enhanced infrastructure spending.

The IMC stands ready to continue engaging with EU policy makers and is working proactively to promote high professional standards and education among its members and across the wider industry. We are developing new research into a number of priority areas and we have already shared some key findings with the European Commission, Members of the European Parliament, the European Parliamentary Research Service, OECD and other stakeholders. Our research is publicly available on our website. The IMC continues working to ensure new independent research on key areas such as: Minimum Standards in Due Diligence in IM Programmes, National Security and Investment Migration; Societal Benefits of Investment Migration; Financial Crimes and Investment Migration is published alongside academic working papers, which are peer-reviewed.

Commenting on this series of initiatives, IMC chief executive Bruno L’ecuyer said “With the support of the industry making this engagement possible, we look forward to continued cooperation with the European Parliament, Commission, EU Member States, OECD, as well as other international organisations, in order to provide balance in the debate surrounding the industry” L’ecuyer goes on to say “Our objective is a rigorous, fair and formalised system for the specialised immigration category known as Investment Migration, with standards that will mitigate the risks of abuse”.

 

Published: January 2019

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen on Monday called for greater transparency in schemes allowing foreign nationals to acquire EU citizenship through investment, while Nicosia pushed back defending its passport programme.

Katainen, on a two-day visit to the island, called for a standardised process across the bloc to ensure proper vetting of non-EU nationals seeking to acquire residence permits or passports.

“Whether we like it or not this will be an issue at the European level in the future,” Katainen said addressing a joint session of the House finance and foreign affairs committees.

“Many member states are very concerned about this. There are also negative examples that golden passports have been provided to persons who have had some unclear activities in some countries,” he noted, alluding to money laundering and tax evasion.

“We need a clearer common understanding on this in order to improve transparency. All member states share the view that we cannot do anything that would jeopardise security, we cannot support money laundering, we cannot support tax evasion and that’s why we need to discuss with the member states how do we improve transparency because is the best guarantee that we understand each other and that the system is fair and secured,” Katainen told MPs.

Although his visit to Cyprus revolved primarily around the ‘golden passports’ issue, the EU official took the opportunity to comment on Brussels’ vision for the EU project.

“In two years’ time the EU for sure will be more integrated than it is today, but people don’t know this enough,” he announced.

Katainen went on to sound off Brussels’ talking points on Russia’s alleged involvement in elections and referendums such as Brexit, as well as the United States’ stance over climate change, describing these as “challenges” that the bloc must face.

“However, the EU is also challenged from within,” he noted.

“Our union is based on liberal democratic values but currently unfortunately we have some political leaders, for instance in Poland, in Hungary in Romania who are putting liberal democratic values in question, the whole EU, all of our member states are based on the values of human dignity, freedom of press, freedom of expression, human rights, politically free judiciary etc and now these values are put in question. In my opinion this is the biggest threat for Europe.”

He added: “There’s no EU if we don’t have a joint value basis.”

Earlier in the day, Katainen was received by President Nicos Anastasiades.

Following that meeting, the government spokesman said Nicosia would not accept Cyprus being “victimised” over its investment activities following last week’s EU report noting that its citizenship-by-investment scheme had insufficient checks on the origins of applicants’ wealth.

The government, Prodromos Prodromou said, is in constant contact with the European Commission, “so that we adopt the best international practices, but also defend our country’s right to apply its own policies, without ever accepting that Cyprus will be victimised internationally because it has investment activity.”

Anastasiades, he said, explained to Katainen that the government had recently tightened procedures for its citizenship-by-investment scheme.

Among these, the hiring of specialised firms tasked with carrying out due-diligence forensics on passport applicants.

“He [Anastasiades] gave reassurances that remarks and recommendations are taken into account, recalling that our country, has, in recent years, also through the programme and voluntarily, adopted rigorous controls on the prevention of transactions that may involve illegal activities whether it is for money laundering or for tax evasion,” Prodromou said.

Like all EU members, Cyprus follows and is under the scrutiny of the Council of Europe’s watchdog on money laundering, Moneyval, and follows its recommendations, “while we have adopted both legislation but also practices.”

At the meeting, Katainen stressed the EU is always open to investment, but at the same time there should be shared information among countries and attention to investment in strategic areas, “whether we are talking about telecoms or for security systems.”

Later, the EU official saw finance minister Harris Georgiades. In statements, they both sought to play down the matter.

Katainen said the European Commission is not targeting Cyprus or any European country for their passport schemes. What is desirable, he added, is a system that addresses the concerns expressed by certain EU member states.

Georgiades said Cyprus is ready to work with the Commission and its EU partners, providing full data on its programme in order “to deal with any warranted concerns that may exist”.

On Sunday, Katainen stated the European Commission has established an expert group to consider how to create fully transparent rules on the granting of EU citizenship by member states in order to avoid tax evasion, money laundering or security threats.

In a report last week, the European Commission had warned that programmes of EU states, including Cyprus, to sell passports and visas to wealthy foreigners could help organised crime groups infiltrate the bloc and raise the risk of money laundering, corruption and tax evasion.

The EU report on so-called “investment migration” highlighted shortfalls in the Cypriot and Maltese schemes which do not sufficiently check the origins of wealth of individuals and do not allow their easy identification.

Cypriot officials countered that the report did not portray an accurate picture as it failed to take into account the changes made by the government in May last year.

Whereas the report did reference the changes in passing, due to time constraints these had not been included in the final text.

Katainen’s itinerary also included participating in an event in Nicosia titled ‘A citizens’ dialogue on the future of Europe and tomorrow’s megatrends’.

 

Source: cyprus-mail.com

Votes by MPs this week sought to keep open the prospect of a negotiated deal. A bid to stop a “no deal” Brexit was defeated, and that outcome remains a possibility. Wealth managers ponder the implications.

Late on Tuesday this week UK legislators voted against an attempt to prevent a “no deal” Brexit (in which the country would leave the European Union without a free trade deal, relying on terms of the World Trade Organisation). Uncertainty about what sort of Brexit deal the UK will get continues to worry the wealth management sector. The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March.

In reaction to the parliamentary actions, here are comments from the industry.

John Barrass, PIMFA’s deputy chief executive
PIMFA continues to reiterate strongly that a “no deal” situation should be avoided. We view the transition arrangements enshrined in the draft Withdrawal Agreement rejected by Parliament as being the minimum necessary to allow for smooth changes and a one-step Brexit, as required by our members and for which we have argued persistently for a long time. This will allow the firms to make appropriate alterations and develop suitable strategies post-Brexit to help their clients plan for their financial futures, ensuring minimum disruption and maximum continuity to the essential services the firms provide to help individuals and families.

Geoffrey Yu, head of UK investment office, UBS Global Wealth Management
We continue to see, as indicated this evening, that there is a majority for preventing no deal, yet this scenario remains the default position. The market was clearly not cheered by a result that legally keeps no deal on the table, given that sterling has responded by surrendering some of its recent gains. Investors would have appreciated a more conclusive view on rejecting such an outcome. All eyes will turn to the EU as the question now becomes what is achievable in new negotiations. As things stand, an extension is not entirely unthinkable.

Terence Moll, chief strategist at Seven Investment Management
On the surface, the possibility of a no deal Brexit has risen. Even if it is an outcome that Parliament has rejected, as we get closer to 29 March no deal becomes less unlikely, if only by mistake. To make matters worse, the Prime Minister has promised something she claimed was impossible a few weeks ago – renegotiation of the Withdrawal Agreement. Meanwhile, the EU instantly rejected reopening negotiations.

In reality, the spread of outcomes remain as wide as ever. For starters, Parliament feels it should have been able to give a steer to the government long ago. It is finally learning how to flex its muscles on Brexit. Better late than never. Also, this was an opportunity to patch up a brewing civil war within the Conservative Party while allowing Labour more space to not make a decision. Think temporary “win-win”. But as we get closer to the March deadline, there will be less space for this kind of indecision.

“The Prime Minister has promised another Commons vote in mid-February, possibly on the 14th. What exactly might she bring back to the table? Behind the EU’s bluster, it’s an expert at kicking cans down roads. If the UK thinks the way around an indefinite backstop is some technological solution at some point in the future, maybe the EU might be open to agreeing on what kind of parameters it would expect these solutions to meet. (An example is explained in more detail here.) Such parameters “could involve test runs, agreed levels of border security (such as maximum levels of smuggling) and milestones for building the necessary infrastructure for behind-the-border controls.” It’s a long shot but we shouldn’t reject the idea of an updated Withdrawal Agreement.

“In the past month, the currency markets seemed to agree with our view that a consensus was building around taking no deal off the table. The trade-weighted pound has moved up over 4 per cent. Last night’s (Tuesday’s) events haven’t moved the market’s thinking by much. We still think that no deal won’t happen but can’t rule it out yet. We remain overweight the pound in the belief that Brexit won’t be disastrous but are not yet ready to position for a sustained rally in UK equities so remain underweight.”

Charles Hepworth, investment director at GAM
After Sir Graham Brady’s amendment – to try and re-negotiate the Irish backstop with alternative arrangements even though the EU has ruled that out – sneaked through with a slim majority, it is back to a game of chicken with the EU, in a bid to try to re-negotiate something that has already been agreed. You could not make this up – essentially May has been told to not allow a no deal outcome at the same time as being tasked with a doomed re-negotiation that risks a no deal outcome.

Judging by the reaction of sterling to the voting outcome – which fell by 0.6 per cent against the US dollar – the odds of a no deal outcome have somewhat risen. In our view, this is all becoming exceptionally tedious. May’s original deal will likely come back to the House unaltered and the choice will then be between that or a no deal Brexit. As uncertainty prevails, UK assets are almost impossible to trade.

Bethany Payne, global bonds portfolio manager at Janus Henderson
The pound retreated as hopes of an extension to Article 50 were slashed. On Tuesday 29 January, Parliament voted against taking control of Brexit proceedings for at least the next two weeks as Parliament failed to support the Cooper Boles amendments [to block a no deal Brexit]. Theresa May must now return to Brussels on a wing and a prayer to renegotiate the Irish backstop.

Currency markets reacted negatively as this is currently seen as an impossible task. The EU aren’t seemingly willing to re-open the Withdrawal Agreement and the so called UK ‘Malthouse Compromise’ for a facilitated customs union and technological solutions to avoid a hard border in the island of Ireland would continue to just be a re-run of previous unsuccessful negotiations. While a no deal scenario is still unlikely, these developments increase the risk of accidentally leaving the EU without a deal and plans may intensify from both sides to manage that outcome.

The successful Brady/May amendment did, however, provide much requested clarity to the EU that there is a majority in the UK Parliament for the Withdrawal Agreement if there is an agreed alternative arrangement to the Irish backstop. This leaves the ball in the EU’s court to choreograph a revised deal that would guarantee support in the House of Commons. If, however, “nothing has changed” in two weeks and there is a failure to have a revised deal ratified by 13 February, then MPs will have another opportunity, on 14 February, to vote to gain control of the Brexit process. An extension of Article 50, to allow time to pass legislation, also now seems increasingly likely.

 

Source: wealthbriefing.com

Three Americans hailed as heroes for thwarting a jihadist attack on a train between Amsterdam and Paris were officially welcomed as French citizens on Thursday in a ceremony in the US state of California.

Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone, all aged 26, “risked their lives for the values of the republic,” Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens, the French consul general in San Francisco, said at the ceremony in Sacramento.

While on vacation in Europe, the trio took action on August 21, 2015 to prevent a bloodbath on the high-speed Thalys train, tackling a man who opened fire on travelers.

The gunman, identified as Moroccan national Ayoub El Khazzani, was armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a pistol and a box cutter.

The attacker had seriously injured a person before the intervention of the three Americans, two of whom were in the military at the time: Skarlatos in the Oregon National Guard, and Stone in the Air Force.

The three young men received the Legion d’honneur, the highest French distinction, from then-president Francois Hollande, and became even more famous after the incident was made into a Clint Eastwood movie in which the three played themselves.

The three were naturalized at their request.

“It was important for us to become citizens because we have such a connection with France now. We’ve been back four or five times since the terrorist attack,” Skarlatos said.

“Today, France is proud and happy to welcome you,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in his official letter of naturalization.

“You now have the full rights attached to French and European citizenship and must fully assume all the duties. Our republic and the European Union need your active participation to support democracy,” Macron added.

“We don’t speak French yet but we’re currently about to get into classes,” Sadler said.

“It opens up a lot of different options in my life,” said Stone. “Maybe I’ll have a French wife!”

 

Source: france24.com

A London-born former England youth international signed for Beijing Guoan on Thursday and will take Chinese citizenship, in a landmark move for Chinese football.

Ex-Arsenal player Nico Yennaris arrived from English second-tier side Brentford and was joined at Guoan by fellow midfielder John Hou Saeter, who was born in Norway.

The duo — both of whom have Chinese mothers — are set to become China’s first naturalised footballers “after all the formalities are completed”, Guoan said.

The capital club, who won last season’s Chinese FA Cup under German coach Roger Schmidt, said they hope the two players will go on to represent China.

The 25-year-old Yennaris, who has taken the Chinese name Li Ke, tweeted: “I’m delighted to announce I’ve signed for Beijing Sinobo Guoan FC as a Chinese citizen.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for me to play in the birth country of my mother and grandparents.”

Saeter, 21, who will use his Chinese name Hou Yongyong, moves from Stabaek in Norway’s top league.

By naturalising both men, Guoan can field them as domestic players instead of overseas ones.

Chinese Super League teams are restricted to a maximum of three foreign players on the pitch at the same time.

The pair’s switch to Chinese could also be a boon to the struggling national side, who badly need quality reinforcements.

Yennaris has represented England at under-17, under-18 and under-19, and Saeter played for Norway in several age groups.

However, that would not stop them playing for China because they did not represent the countries of their birth as senior internationals.

 

Source: worldsoccertalk.com

Investment Migration Council Press Statement

 

We welcome the Commission’s report. It represents progress towards the establishment of a rigorous, fair and formalised system for investment migration (IM) with standards that will mitigate risks of abuse. The IMC has shared these values and objectives since our foundation.

We support enhanced transparency by putting in place better risk management, control systems and oversight mechanisms, as well as calls for greater cooperation on information-sharing about applicants for citizenship and residency; the IMC stands ready to cooperate with legislators as other industry bodies do.

In fact, we are proactively working with our industry members and countries to conduct research into the following areas we independently have identified as priorities: National Security and Investment Migration (IM); Societal Benefits of IM; Financial Crimes and IM.

These study areas will augment our ongoing research initiatives into: Due Diligence in IM, Setting Global Standards for Professional Firms and finally providing an evidence-driven approach to demonstrating the financial inflow into a country of IM programmes. These will supplement existing Working Papers including recently-published work exploring the EU’s role in migration and the genuine link criterion. We will be sharing these research reports and findings with the European Commission, European Parliament, OECD and IMF to proactively enhance cooperation and information-sharing in this area.

Consequently, we ask for better balance in this report and in future work in this area. For example, this report does not present or reflect in any manner the fundamental societal and economic benefits that these investment programmes bring. This is not constructive to policymaking or debate formation.

These programs create genuine societal advantage not just through increased government revenue, employment creation and enhanced infrastructure spending, but through the generation of new opportunities across all levels of society. National statistics of Malta, Greece, Latvia, Spain and Portugal reflect the contribution made through foreign direct investment.

Good policymaking is built on solid cooperation and consultation with industry but also across European Institutions – e.g. the work of the European Parliament’s Research Services entitled “Citizenship by Investment (CBI) and Residency by Investment (RBI) schemes in the EU: State of play, issues and impacts” which in itself demonstrated the contributions of these programmes to small countries on the periphery of the European economy was not cited nor included in the European Commission report. It is important such contributions are taken on board by the European Commission both from a factual and balance perspective.

Therefore in order for workable solutions to be found and progress to be made it is essential that industry and the work of the IMC are included within future European Commission Communications and initiatives. We have sought this level of cooperative engagement for some time now and we are committed to seeking from the European Commission inclusion in their future policy development process.

We look forward to achieving more enhanced cooperation with the European Commission in order to help deliver our common objective of a rigorous, fair and formalised system for investment migration (IM). 

 

 European Commission’s full report

 

 

Notes to Editor

 

About IMC

The Investment Migration Council (IMC) is the worldwide association for Investor Migration and Citizenship-by-Investment, bringing together the leading stakeholders in the field and giving the industry a voice. The IMC sets the standards on a global level and interacts with other professional associations, governments and international organizations in relation to investment migration. The IMC helps to improve public understanding of the issues faced by clients and governments in this area and promotes education and high professional standards among its members.

The IMC is constituted as a not-for-profit association under Swiss law. Based in Geneva, it has representative offices in New York, London and the Cayman Islands. Managed by a Secretariat under the direction of a Governing Board, the IMC also has a non-executive Advisory Committee, in which the most important industry stakeholders are represented. The IMC is funded by membership fees, donors and income from activities such as events, education and training, and publications.

Bulgaria’s Justice Ministry is proposing amendments to the Bulgarian Citizenship Act which would scrap the possibility of obtaining citizenship through investing in the country, among other steps to refine the requirements for applicants for citizenship.

Under current law, citizenship of Bulgaria may be obtained by an individual who invests a minimum 500 000 euro in a year, doubling this in the second year.

Officials recently said that there have been very few application for Bulgarian citizenship on this basis.

An analysis of the records has shown that the objective of increasing real foreign investments and economic development has not been achieved. As a result, job creation and economic development have not followed from the citizenship-for-investment provision in the law.

The Justice Ministry’s proposals, drafted by a working group appointed by Justice Minister Tsetska Tsacheva in February 2018, are to be discussed by the Cabinet council on development on January 30 and then put up for public discussion.

Another of the proposals is to require applicants for citizenship on the grounds of Bulgarian ancestry to prove they can speak Bulgarian and have work and income in the country.

The draft proposes implementing quality control over the institutions responsible for the provision of Bulgarian citizenship in order to comply with the legal procedures and deadlines.

Requirements for some documents to be presented in hard-copy form would be abolished.

The Justice Ministry said that the changes in monitoring and procedures were geared to prevent abuses in citizenship applications.

In Bulgaria, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov has spoken of shutting down the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, which more than once has been caught up in controversies over alleged corruption in dealing with applications for Bulgarian citizenship on the grounds of Bulgarian descent./IBNA

 

Source: balkaneu.com

 

 

 

Antigua and Barbuda’s controversial citizen by investment, Mehul Choksi, has surrendered his native Indian passport, in what is being described by Indian news outlet NDTV as a move to avoid extradition.

According to the news outlet, Choksi, a wanted fugitive in his native country, has given up his Indian citizenship and listed his new address as Jolly Harbour, Antigua.

NDTV further reports that Choksi’s latest move could make it more difficult for Indian authorities to get Antigua & Barbuda to extradite him.

“His extradition proceedings are now ongoing and this is why he surrendered his passport and India doesn’t allow dual citizenship,” the media outlet reported.

The diamond jeweller and his nephew, Nirav Modi, have been fingered in a $2 billion-dollar Punjab bank fraud.

Earlier this month, the main Indian agency investigating the alleged mega scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation, was reportedly considering sending a team to Antigua and Barbuda, in a bid to lay hold of the fraud-accused billionaire, who has been living in Antigua for about a year.

An extradition hearing is ongoing here, pitting Choksi against the government, with the parties due back in court on February 22nd.

When contacted, Choksi’s lawyer, Dr. David Dorsett, said he was unsure if or how this latest development might impact the ongoing extradition proceedings.

OBSERVER media has since confirmed that in the absence of any Indian diplomatic mission or representative here, Choksi surrendered his passport to the Indian Embassy in Guyana.

 

Source: antiguaobserver.com

The UAE government has granted the first batch of 10-year residency visas to the finalists and winners of the Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Distinction, as the country pushes forward its status as an incubator of talent and innovation. 

 

The names of scientists were announced during the second annual meeting of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Academy of Scientists, in the presence of more than 150 scientists from across the world.

“The granting of long-term resident visas to scientists and researchers is a reflection of the UAE leadership’s vision to enhance the country’s position as a destination for creative minds and talents,” said Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Sciences.

“We look forward to continuing our efforts towards attaining the UAE’s goal of becoming a global scientific hub, and providing an environment conducive to scientific advancement while building an integrated scientific community capable of meeting all future development needs,” she added.

The awarding of residency visas marks that the Cabinet decision has been put into force. The decision also includes provisions for granting a 10-year visa for specialised talents and researchers in the fields of science and knowledge for doctors, specialists and inventors. As well as creative individuals in the field of culture and art. The visa’s advantages include the spouse and children.

 

Source: internationalinvestment.net

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has criticised the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for labelling several Caribbean countries as tax havens and called for a unified regional approach to deal with the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CBI).

Dominica and several Caribbean countries, including St Kitts-Nevis, Grenada, St Lucia, and Antigua and Barbuda use the CBI to attract foreign investments by providing citizenship to those persons making a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of their islands.

Late last year, the Paris-based OECD, an intergovernmental economic organisation with 36 member countries, said the CBI initiatives threaten international efforts to combat tax evasion.

The OECD blacklisted several Caribbean countries, namely Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Kitts-Nevis.

Allegations must be addressed

But Skerrit, speaking on the state-owned DBS radio on Tuesday night, said the allegations made by the OECD need to be addressed.

“What the OECD and such international organisations are doing to Dominica and the Caribbean is unfair. The Caribbean … we have always cooperated with the international community on all matters,” he said.

“When we were advised by a study done by the World Bank to diversify our economies in the ’90s and introduced the offshore financial services, we went ahead with this and all of the recommendations and positions which were placed on the Caribbean … we have gone beyond what was demanded of us,” Skeritt added.

The Dominican prime minister told radio listeners that it is important for the Caribbean to stand in defence of its sovereignty and right to self-determination.

“We will go ahead with the OECD because they run the world. They will tell us what to do and we will have no choice but to do it, because we need the financial systems to operate, etc. But what they are doing is unfair, because a lot of things they are asking us to do they are not doing themselves,” he said.

“I am not quite pleased with the fact that in the Caribbean we haven’t had a united voice and a united defence on this. I am saddened by this,” Skerrit added.

 

Source: jamaica-gleaner.com