Cyprus Government has faced accusations for selling Golden Visas, granting European Union citizenship and residency to persons included in criminal activities, corruption, and money laundering.

According to Al Jazeeras Investigative Unit, named The Cyprus Papers, a total of 1,400 wealthy internationals and their 1,100 family members have bought Cyprus citizenship, from 2017 to 2019 through the Cyprus Investment Program.

Thirty of these persons have been accused of illegal actions, while 40 of them are politically exposed persons, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

In this regard, the Transparency International, a global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, has stressed that the European Commission must take decisive action against Member States scandal-ridden golden visa schemes, which a new leak of documents shows remain vulnerable to corruption and money laundering.

The latest Al Jazeera report, once again brought to light many of the corruption and money laundering accusations that have been previously mentioned by a large share of European countries, including the European Union Commission.

Some of the persons on the list appear to have brought their passports, after the Governments decision to tighten the criteria.

Soon after the publication of the report, the Cyprus government denied these accusations that passports have been granted to the wealthy internationals involved in crime and corruption accusations, adding that they were all legitimate at the time.

According to the Interior Ministry of Cyprus, 12 internationals mentioned in the report accepted their citizenship under the scheme only after being approved by Cypriot and foreign agencies tasked with vetting such applications.

Former Gazprom official Nikolay Gornovskiy was one of the persons who bought EU citizenship in 2019. He has been included in Russias wanted list for corruption.

Russian national Igor Reva, who once was a deputy minister for economic development, and Pham Phu Quoc, who represents Ho Chi Minh City in the Vietnamese Congress, also bought Cyprus citizenship.

The speaker of Afghanistans Lower House of Parliament Rahman Rahmani, as well, bought EU citizenship, not only for himself but for his wife and three daughters, as well.

Through the Golden Visa Scheme, persons from around the world are eligible to buy citizenship of Cyprus, if they make a minimum of 2.15 million euros ($2.5m) investment in Cyprus.

Persons who make such an investment will be able to live, travel and work in any of the 27 European Union member states.

In April, the European Union Commission criticised Cyprus, Bulgaria and Malta for their Golden Visa schemes.

European Commissions criticisms were addressed during a video-hearing of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).

Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders emphasised that these three countries need to phase out these programmes.

European Parliament members had previously adopted a recommendation, urging EU countries running Golden Visa schemes as well as passports, to terminate them.

In February, members of the European Parliament from the European Peoples Party also demanded the abolition of the Golden visa schemes.

Even though the Cypriot Government approved some changes to its golden visa scheme, the report shows that the door for money laundering and other illegal actions is sill opened.

In February, Cyprus became the first country to update the golden visa scheme, after being criticised by the European Council.

These changes to make the program more specific, applied by Cyprus authorities included:

In 2019, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades admitted that errors might have occurred in granting Golden Passports after he repeatedly denied there were any problems.

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Cyprus Accused of Selling Golden Visas to the Corrupt and Criminals - SchengenVisaInfo.com