Major Overhaul: St Kitts and Nevis CIU Becomes a Statutory Corporation

The Government of St Kitts and Nevis has established a Board of Governors to oversee the transformation of its Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) into a statutory corporation. This follows the enactment of the Citizenship by Investment Unit Act on June 28, 2024.

Mr. Calvin St Juste, a Special Envoy for Investment, Development, and International Business Relations for St Kitts and Nevis, will oversee the Board. In its announcement, the government highlight that St Juste brings 25 years of experience in international finance, cybersecurity, and client management to the role.

The board members, including Dr. Louisa Lawrence, Mr. Carlton Pogson, Mr. Damille James, Ms. Kishma Maclean, and Ms. Marsha Harris, hold expertise in finance, business, compliance, and governance.

The Board’s primary responsibilities include:

• Modernizing the CIU.
• Ensuring the Citizenship by Investment Program operates with the utmost professionalism.
• Commissioning an independent external audit of the CIU’s operations annually.

The Board will also develop policies and procedures for the CIU and ensure proposed Citizenship by Investment projects are financially sound and beneficial to the Federation.

Establishing the CIU as a separate entity was among the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations from a report last year. Prime Minister Terrance Drew emphasized the importance of making the CIU an independent, statutory corporation, citing “glaring instances of mismanagement” under the former administration.

This development follows Prime Minister Terrance Drew’s announcement in Parliament last month about establishing a Continuing International Due Diligence (CIDD) Unit.

The CIDD Unit, headquartered in Europe and led by Mr. Ian M. Queeley, the OECS’ ambassador to Morocco and former Police Commissioner in St Kitts & Nevis, will monitor citizens by investment on an ongoing basis to ensure they continue to meet the ethical standards that allowed them to obtain citizenship in the Federation.

In addition to these measures, Prime Minister Drew has indicated that he is prepared to take the necessary statutory steps under the Citizenship Act to protect the federation’s good name and “revoke citizenships obtained by fraud,” emphasizing that such action would be taken “on the basis of facts and evidence, as every citizen of this country has the right to due process.”

This stance comes in the wake of a RICO lawsuit filed by MSR Media in a US federal court in Florida, alleging that Caribbean citizenship by investment officials, developers, and the former government of St Kitts and Nevis conspired to defraud investors and engaged in money laundering and corruption by selling citizenships below the official threshold.

This development is the latest in a series of changes to the St Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Program in recent months. St Kitts was the first of the “Caribbean Five” to raise its prices, doubling the minimum investment in July 2023.

That new framework would last less than a year, however, as St Kitts adapted its pricing model after the rest of the countries revealed new investment thresholds.

In July 2024, the CIU announced revised investment thresholds and post-approval fees, including a significant reduction in the minimum contribution amount for the Sustainable Island State Contribution (SISC) option to US$250,000 for a single applicant or a family of up to four persons.

The new pricing brings St Kitts’ investment threshold closer to those of other Caribbean CBI jurisdictions, in line with the pan-Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Memorandum of Agreement (MoA).

This price adjustment demonstrates that while all MoA signatories work within its framework, they retain the flexibility to adapt to new challenges and market dynamics.