MP demanding IIP revocation, raises fear of ‘terrorists buying passports’

Shadow home affairs minister Jason Azzopardi, has claimed that terrorists “could buy their way into” Malta using the Individual Investor Programme’s €1.15 million passport, in comments to the New York Times.

In a reference to news that two passengers on a missing Malaysian jet were travelling on stolen passports, despite having been vetted by immigration and security officials, Azzopardi claimed that “serious criminal records, scam artists or even terrorists” could pay for their naturalisation as Maltese citizens using the IIP to procure themselves “an illegal gateway” for Europe.

Azzopardi recently filed a parliamentary motion for the revocation of the legal notice enacting the IIP, which now commits applicants seeking a Maltese passport to be resident on the island 12 months before they are naturalised.

Applicants for the IIP must pay €650,000 for the passport, as well as buy a property for €350,000 (or rent it for €16,000 annually over five years) and purchase €150,000 in government bonds.

Azzopardi’s comments in the New York Times were rebutted by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s spokesperson Kurt Farrugia. “We are not trying to make a quick buck. We are a small country, and we want people to know about us and invest in our country.”

Farrugia also insisted that the screening “would be rigorous” – referring to a due diligence process carried out by introducers like IIP concessionaires Henley & Partners and a host of other accredited agents, and finally by Identity Malta, the government agency that effectively runs the IIP.

Henley CEO Eric Major was quoted by the New York Times saying that Iranian and Syrian applicants will not be accepted because of the international sanctions imposed against those countries.

Henley is charging client fees of €70,000, apart from a 4% commission it gets on the €650,000 contribution that successful applicants pay into a posterity fund, the National Social and Development Fund.

Major said the vetting process encompassed multiple steps, including criminal and financial background checks using online databases, vetting by independent security contractors and an analysis using risk assessment software. The Maltese government would then do its own checks through resources such as Interpol and American government agencies.