Wealth drawn mostly from crypto is an anti-money laundering red flag, so citizenship by investment checks ask more about it.
Investment migration programs accept most lawful money, as long as you can document each step between the day you earned it and the day it reached the government account.
El Salvador is the only government that takes Bitcoin or USDT as the qualifying payment for citizenship. Almost every other program wants cash, so the due diligence on where your crypto came from decides your application.
IMI found no published bank rule refusing people who acquired citizenship through investment. The questions banks do ask come from the OECD’s list of potentially high-risk programs and a 2023 report on earlier passports.
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and El Salvador each publish a restricted list, and no two of them name the same countries.
How to check an agent’s license, what a real one looks like, and when to walk away because the economics seem too good to be true.
Lesperance and Peters give insights into the world of CBI due diligence, what happens behind the scenes, and more.
Syria’s exiled elite, with their wealth and urgent need for new passports, may inadvertently impact the CBI industry, writes Fabienne de Blois.
Third-party databases are critical to the due diligence process but have limitations only human sources can help CIUs overcome, writes Fabienne de Blois.
CBI due diligence specialist Fabienne de Blois outlines the three critical characteristics of effective applicant vetting.
Stateless applicants put CIPs in the unique position of assessing whether these individuals should be issued the first passports they have ever held, writes Fabienne de Blois.
Thomas Anthony, former head of several Caribbean CIUs, outlines the delicate and crucial role the region’s banks play in CBI due diligence.
Nuri Katz calls CBI vetting “the best due diligence known to man.” He also takes part of the blame for the industry’s failure to effectively lobby Brussels.
European regulators have made it clear that tighter AML/KYC is in the cards for RCBI. Sylwia Wolos explains how early movers can benefit.
Eligibility standards for Malta’s new investor naturalization policy are among the most stringent in the market. Kenneth Camilleri explains.
Malta’s new citizenship by investment policy comes with a new set of vetting procedures (that will continue for years after approval).
Martin Dubbey, a globally recognized due diligence provider to RCBI programs, shares four strategies to help RCBI agents with vetting.
The ambassador praised Grenada’s use of the JRCC’s facilities and conceded that “some countries use it more than others”.
Roderick Cutajar asks: International banks are used for money laundering. Will the European Commission demand a “phase-out” of banking?
Exiger’s James Swenson, one of the world’s leading experts on RCBI due diligence, identifies six red flags of sub-par vetting standards.
