(An earlier version of this article appeared last Friday in Family Wealth Report, sister news service to this one. Although written from a US perspective, its relevance is plainly global.)
This news service reported on how former Google head, Eric Schmidt, had acquired a “golden visa” offered by Cyprus, one of many jurisdictions offering citizenship/residency-by-investment programmes. The circumstances are controversial because Cyprus’s programme has been recently suspended following a political scandal. These visa programmes have been attacked for enabling money laundering, although industry figures contest such claims. Dozens of jurisdictions, such as Malta, Spain, Grenada, Mauritius, the UK and even the US offer versions of these arrangements.