Representatives of the Governments of the five Caribbean CIP founding countries (the leaders of the OECS CIP countries), after meeting in the end of February with delegates from the US in Grenada, signed an agreement on the introduction of additional rules for the work of investment citizenship programs. Nuri Katz, President and Founder of Apex Capital Partners, of the major CIP companies internationally, a licensed agent for CIPs of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, who was personally visiting Grenada’s CIP Unit at the moment, comments on the planned changes according to the text of the official release published on March 5, 2023.
PRESS RELEASE
US-Caribbean Roundtable on Citizenship by Investment Secures Agreement on Six CBI Principles
«The officials were mostly relatively low-level officials from the office of terrorist financing and financial crimes division of the treasury, as well as some people in charge of sanctions and a couple from the state department. When I saw who attended this meeting my reaction was simply shocking. I cannot for the life of me understand what US terrorist financing or money laundering officials have to discuss with the Prime Ministers of the CIP countries.
The fact is that since the existence of the CIP in the Caribbean, there has never been even one terrorist event that involved a holder of a CIP passport, at least not one that is publicly known about. I have said it many times before, the due diligence done by the CIP countries is the best DD is known to man, and arguably better than that done by the US and other big countries in relation to their investor immigrant programs
The fact that the US is looking at the Caribbean with such suspicious eyes when the record of the CIP on financial fraud if examined correctly, is leaps and bounds way better than the US investor immigration program itself, defies belief!», — said Nuri Katz to Antigua.News.
So, during these meetings the US representatives affirmed that the CBI programs provide a legitimate service and have assisted in the survival of the participating economies by providing revenues, particularly considering the existential threat to our vulnerable small island states – emanating from the climate emergency. CBI revenues are invaluable for funding major infrastructural and development projects, and for building resilience.
Eventually, the five Governments collectively committed to six CBI principles proposed by the US. That is the turning point for Caribbean citizenship by investment and CIP industry in common. Here they are:
1. Collective agreement on treatment of denials: Not to process applications from persons whose applications have been denied in another CBI jurisdiction, by proactively sharing information on denials. 2. Interviews: Conduct interviews with applicants, whether virtual or in-person. 3. Additional checks: Each jurisdiction will run checks on each application with the Financial Intelligence Unit of its respective country. 4. Audits: Audit the Programme annually or every two years in accordance with internationally accepted standards. 5. Retrieval of passports: Request law enforcement assistance to retrieve revoked/recalled passports. 6. Treatment of Russians and Belarusians: Suspend processing applications from Russians and Belarusians. Four jurisdictions have already suspended applications and Grenada which processes applications from Russians and Belarusians with enhanced due diligence, will suspend processing new applications from Russia and Belarus from March 31, 2023.
“Blocking Russians from attaining citizenship in the Caribbean is both form of control over the Caribbean and a show of what has become a paranoid racist chase in the attempt to block every single Russian person prom living a normal life. To be clear amongst our clients in the past were some absolutely wonderful people like an award-winning children’s cartoonist, a publisher of school books, a furniture maker, and the list goes on and on, of wonderful people who, because of an accident of birth are no longer allowed to receive citizenship of Caribbean.
The truth is a vast majority of the applicants are what is called mass affluent. Yes, they are rich, but they are nowhere near rich enough to have an influence on the leadership of the country of 140 million people. In the US there are about 22 million Millionaires, obviously, those people have a negligent influence on the political process in the US, other than the ability to vote. The idea of the US coming down to the Caribbean again to dictate how the Caribbean should be earning income is simply “déjà vu all over again. The question really is when will it ever stop” – comments Nuri Katz.
Given that the Caribbean passport programs have been under pressure from the EU for some time now, it is hoped that an agreement with the US in this context will strengthen the legitimacy and right of the Caribbean programs to exist.
