#Vip passport professional#

Funds for her application came from a 2007 divorce settlement, she said – in other words, from her high-profile ex-husband.Īll applicants are asked to declare if they are “politically exposed persons”, or PEPs, a status that triggers enhanced vetting. In spring 2014, Abramovich applied for a passport for herself and three family members. Other instances are less clear cut, in part because there may be grey areas. In some cases, clients are turned away on the basis of tax disputes in their home countries, or advised that negative press means the Maltese government is unlikely to approve their application.

#Vip passport professional#

Henley insists it carries out the world’s strictest background checks, saying its vetting checks “match or exceed those of adjacent professional services such as law firms and banks.” Its files, to an extent, confirm a more pro-active approach than the firm’s critics might fear. The firm liaised with Identity Malta, now known as Community Malta, the government agency that handles passport approvals. Henley helped her open a local bank account and find a modest seaside apartment in the town of Sliema, north of the capital, Valletta, with a year’s rent paid upfront. In order to qualify, Irina Abramovich had to jump through a few hoops. It has led to social and healthcare investment and is a win-win, it says. Henley says the cash has provided a huge boost to Malta’s once indebted economy, bringing in €850m by 2020. Muscat and his cabinet, meanwhile, energetically boosted Henley’s scheme at seminars and roadshows – in London, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. It says citizenship is the prerogative of individual EU states. Most applicants do not have genuine links with the country, the commission argues.īy way of response, Malta has in effect told Brussels to get lost. As the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, put it, “European values are not for sale.” She worries that such schemes are attractive to high-risk individuals seeking entry to the EU, or could be exploited by some for tax evasion or money laundering. The EU commission has clashed repeatedly with Malta over the issue of golden passports. Ursula von der Leyen: ‘European values are not for sale.’ Photograph: Reuters

The foundation managed to re-establish contact with the whistleblower following Caruana Galizia's death. The information was obtained by the foundation from a whistleblower who first approached Caruana Galizia several years ago. In the years before her death, Caruana Galizia was fiercely critical, publishing multiple revelations about the scheme on her blog. Henley & Partners, which had previously helped to launch a similar programme in the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis, helped to design the Maltese scheme.

In 2013 the Maltese government announced plans to sell passports to wealthy individuals from outside the country. The murder of a journalist in an EU member state precipitated international outrage, and commitments from fellow journalists that they would continue to report on the issues Caruana Galizia had pursued before she died. The foundation, which was supported on this project by the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund, is named after a Maltese investigative journalist killed by a car bomb in 2017. The leak was obtained by the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, a non-profit organisation, and shared with media partners including the Guardian. The leaked files illustrate how many Maltese investor citizens had little or no significant links to the island where they were naturalised as citizens. Investor citizenship, also known as the 'golden passports' trade, is legal but highly controversial. The Henley & Partners data leak consists of files from a firm specialising in helping wealthy clients to buy visas or passports.