GNV News 2025 May 3
On 2025 April 29, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down a ruling that Malta’s “golden passport” scheme violates the law of the European Union (EU).
Malta, known as a tax haven, introduced the scheme in 2014 as the “Individual Investor Programme,” granting Maltese citizenship on the condition of, among other things, investments of around €1 million in Maltese real estate. In recent years, it was popular among many wealthy Americans. Since 2015, the Maltese government has earned more than €1.4 billion in revenue from the program.
On the other hand, there had been concerns that by investing funds that may have been obtained through corruption or crime abroad, criminals could acquire Maltese citizenship—of an EU member state—and thus EU citizenship. In fact, Semyon Kuksov, the son of a former Russian oil executive who obtained citizenship, was convicted in the United Kingdom of money laundering, and there has been no sign that his passport was revoked even after the verdict. In this way, the scheme appears to have facilitated not only tax avoidance and tax evasion, but also money laundering and government corruption.
Against this backdrop, the ECJ reached an infringement ruling, holding that the golden passport scheme amounts to “the commercialization of the conferral of Member States’ nationality, and by extension the commercialization of Union citizenship,” and undermines mutual trust among EU Member States.
Learn more about Malta → ““EU’s Pirate Base”: Republic of Malta”
Learn more about the golden passport issue → “The Caribbean Manipulated by Billionaires”
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.