The head of the Investigative Committee for the Golden passports case, Myron Nikolatos, said on Thursday, June 3 that the number of investors facing deprivation of Cypriot citizenship has doubled.
According to the final dossier, which is expected to be handed over on Monday, June 7, in the hands of the country's attorney general, members of the Commission will recommend that the passports of 44 foreigners be canceled. As you may know, the figure was 22 in the interim report.
Along with 100 additional high-risk cases recorded in the final report, the Commission will be asked to consider, in accordance with article 113 of the Civil Registry Law 2002 (141(I)/2002), the possibility of depriving about 44 foreign investors of Golden passports, Nikolatos emphasized.
We must admit that these changes are explained by the fact that the Commission's employees carried out a thorough examination of the documents of directors and managers of companies. According to Nikolatos, during the investigation of the cases, it became clear that "some of them were also naturalized outside the legal framework."
Thus, in addition to an increase in the number of cases, the volume of illegal naturalizations will also grow to 53% (in the interim report, this figure was 51.8%).
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General of Cyprus rejected the request of the Investigative Committee to extend their term of office by 2 days for a more detailed investigation of some of the files. George L. Savvides noted that the members of the Committee are obliged to submit their opinion within the strictly specified time frame, i.e. on June 7, when 1 year expires from the moment of the beginning of the investigation.
In addition, Savvides noted that the main part of the interim report is now under the microscope of the police, which are investigating high-risk naturalization cases. The Attorney-General stressed that the police promised to soon provide him with the results of their investigation.
It should be mentioned that a new Investigative Group was created in law enforcement agencies a few days ago, which will have to study problem cases with Golden passports. It is known that the Investigation Team included 10 experienced investigators seconded from the TAE (Crime Investigation Departments) of all provinces.
The main goal of the new group is to investigate 112 cases of illegal naturalizations, which are described in detail on the 500 pages of the interim dossier of the Investigative Commission, headed by Myron Nikolatos.
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