Most Cyprus passports issued in investment scheme were ‘illegal’

Between 2013 and 2019, probe finds that thousands of passports issued to rich foreigners were handed out illegally.

More than half the passports Cyprus issued to rich foreigners in an investment scheme were illegal, a government-appointed board of inquiry has found. More than 3,000 foreign investors who stumped up a minimum of two million euros were given Cypriot passports between 2013 and 2019, with the scheme proving popular with Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese and Cambodians. The programme was terminated last year after a corruption scandal, embarrassing the island’s centre-right administration which had championed the scheme before admitting it was flawed.