Chinese Govt. Seeks “Complete Control of its Population”: IM People in the News This Week
Investment migration people and firms in the news this week included:
- Philippe May of EC Holdings
- Eric Major of Latitude
- Suresh Rajan of LCR Capital
- Peter Calabrese of CanAm Investor Services
- David Lesperance of Lesperance & Associates
- Joana Mendonça of Global Citizen Solutions
- Passport Legacy
- Henley & Partners
ITV News – China’s zero-Covid policy pushing people to emigrate abroad
We’ve spoken to eight different relocation companies, and they all report an increase in inquiries from people wanting to emigrate. They told us there was a marked spike after the Congress last month, at which Xi Jinping was confirmed as Communist Party leader for an unprecedented third term.
During that historic gathering he made it clear that under his continued rule the country will seek a strict socialist agenda. That has made many Chinese millionaires and billionaires uneasy.
Phillipe May, from EC Holdings in Singapore, told ITV News it has replaced Hong Kong as a safe haven for their money. His firm is one of those that is fielding calls from more people asking to get themselves and their money out of China. He says they are looking not only for increased personal freedom but also peace of mind for their hard-earned assets. They tell him they want their money in a safe place where it can’t be easily confiscated on frivolous or trumped-up charges.
Elsewhere, Eric Major works for Latitude, a company which also helps citizens set up a second residence. He quipped instead of a Rolex or Tesla car, it’s now a second residency card or citizenship that wealthy Chinese families are seeking. And Ireland is emerging as one of the most popular destinations. After Brexit it’s become somewhere migrants can gain access to the European and UK markets.
Financial Express – US EB5 visa unlikely to reach pre-Covid levels till 2023-end: LCR Capital
The EB-5 visa, or the United States‘ version of the golden visa, is unlikely to reach pre-COVID-19 levels before 2023-end, according to LCR Capital Partners, an investment firm that facilitates EB-5 visas for high net worth individuals and ultra-high net worth individuals in India.
“The programme was effectively in hibernation for the last couple of years due to Covid and delay in renewal,” said LCR Capital Partners founder and executive chairman Suresh Rajan, adding that they have not been able to engage with the market and the prospects for a number of years.
[…]
“We operate under this five-year window to build our business and bring in as many investors as we can over the next few years,” Rajan said. Broadly, the EB-5 investor visa programme enables immigrant investors to obtain US green cards and permanent residency through a one-time minimum investment of $800,000 into a new US business that creates 10 or more jobs.
Arabian Business – Golden Visa: US expats renounce citizenship as UAE offers more attractive lifestyle
Over 150,000 Golden Visas were issued since 2019, Passport Legacy, a Swiss boutique firm has observed a surge in the number of expatriate high-net-worth individuals who are renouncing their US citizenship.
A reported 2,872 HNWI expatriates renounced their US citizenships in the first three-quarters of 2022, exceeding the number throughout the previous year which was 2,421.
Economic Times – Decoding the new EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022
Peter Calabrese of CanAm Investor Services contributes a piece to one of India’s biggest English-languages dailies in which he highlights the salient changes the Reform and Integrity Act has brought to the EB-5 program.
One of the most important changes in the new law is to allow concurrent visa filing. Concurrent filing allows Indians residing in the U.S. with legal visas to adjust their status while in the U.S. There’s no longer the requirement of returning to their home country to do it, which allows them to stay, study, work and live in the U.S. uninterrupted while awaiting for [sic] their permanent green card to be processed.
The Street – Crypto Price Check: Picking Up the Pieces After FTX Collapse
David Lesperance, managing partner of immigration and tax adviser Lesperance & Associates, said investors will be asking tough questions about crypto exchanges and stable coins.
“If the answers are not immediate, provable, and credible then that exchange or stable coin will see a similar bank run,” he said. “There will be a ‘flight to quality’ for those exchanges and stable coins which pass this scrutiny.”
In addition, Lesperance said, FTX and other failed exchange account holders will go through the same bankruptcy process as the holders of Celsius Network, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 13.
This would include years of litigation; full public disclosure of their financial dealings with that exchange/coin as they are all listed as unsecured creditors; and, if not, he said, “a total loss, then boot camp haircut.”
“U.S. and other regulators will be doing a detailed autopsy on all the failed exchanges, stable coins, other coins to determine if there was activity relating to criminal fraud,” Lesperance said.
AFP/Yahoo News – ‘European California’ Portugal woos Americans seeking better life
Joana Mendonça, a lawyer for migration consultancy Global Citizen Solutions, speaks “almost every day” to US clients.
“Some come because they’re digital nomads and want to work from home by the sea,” she said.
“There are also entire families, who dream of one day getting their children into European universities.
“And there are retired people who sell everything in the States so they can enjoy a good retirement in Portugal.”
Mendoca said Americans had “a different mentality” from other foreign investors, who were drawn to Portugal essentially by residency permits and tax exemptions.
CoinTelegraph – Could Hong Kong really become China’s proxy in crypto?
Speaking to Cointelegraph, David Lesperance, founder of Lesperance & Associates law firm, who has been dealing with Hong Kong and China-based clients for more than 30 years, doubted the possible interest of the Chinese government in opening up to crypto:
“Rather, they are interested in having complete control over their population, including those who reside in HK. This is demonstrated by such actions as social credit scoring, facial recognition, household registration, exit bans, zero COVID-19, etc.”
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Lesperance emphasized that the introduction of e-CNY and the continuing restrictions on the rest of the crypto, even when it comes to domestic miners, confirms Beijing’s drive to control the financial sphere in the first place:
“Control over the financial lives and assets of the Chinese citizens is the ultimate control. This will be achieved when all transactions are done in e-yuan. Facilitating other crypto-currencies would undermine this move toward complete control.”
BNN Bloomberg – China Covid Easing Prompts Warning From Emigration Group
China faces a growing exodus of talent and wealth as strict pandemic controls and a year-long crackdown on the tech and property sectors prompt residents to consider options abroad. An estimated 10,000 high-net-worth residents are seeking to pull $48 billion from China this year, the second-largest movement after Russia, according to Henley & Partners.