Cyprus revoked the “golden passports” of at least seven Russian billionaires

It published a list of 77 investors who lost their “golden passports.” The record included the founder of Rusal Oleg Deripaska, shareholder of the Alfa Group Alexey Kuzmichev, founder of the Safmar group Mikhail Gutseriev, owner of the Mercury Group Igor Kesaev, former chairman of the board of directors of Sheremetyev Alexander Ponomarenko, owner of Rusagro Vadim Moshkovich and co-owner of Fix Price Sergey Lomakin.

According to Politis, the list was prepared about a month ago. In addition to the investors themselves, the list also shows the number of “golden passports” received by their relatives. Their citizenship was also revoked. The registry does not include nine more people, whose passports were taken away to make investments after the list was drawn up.

Among the main reasons why Cypriot authorities deprived investors of their “golden passports” were false or misleading information when submitting applications, criminal records and failure to comply with naturalization conditions. Cases of investors whose passports were revoked for investment reasons will be examined by local police.

In Cyprus, a “Golden Passport” could be obtained until 2020 for investments in the state economy of at least 2 million euros. That year, the program was canceled due to “long-term deficiencies and abuses” by the country’s investors. authorities reported.