To date, the government has revoked the Cypriot passports of at least 86 foreign nationals who had obtained citizenship via the now-defunct investment programme, news reports said on Monday.
Media picked up on a report published by Politis over the weekend. The daily got hold of and published the official list of revoked passports, with the names of the passport holders as well as the service providers – such as law firms – which had facilitated the applications.
The list revealed by Politis shows 77 names, but the paper qualified that it does not include nine more citizenships recently revoked by the cabinet. That would bring the total to 86.
The majority of names on the list are Russian, but there are also a number of Chinese names and a few Arabic or Middle Eastern names.
Included is Malaysian-born Jho Low, an internationally wanted fugitive.
Russian names include billionaire Oleg Deripaska, as well as Pavel Ezoubov – likely the same person on the UK’s sanctions list for Russia. Ezoubov is said to be associated with Deripaska.
Also on there is Sergey Lomakin, the owner of Paphos football club. The document shows, in parentheses, the number of relatives of each foreign investor who likewise got the Cypriot passport. In Lomakin’s case, six of his relatives obtained Cypriot citizenship.
Local media contacted an official with Paphos FC, who declined comment.
There are three grounds on which the cabinet may move to revoke a passport: providing false or misleading statements or documentation; a criminal record; and non-compliance with the terms and conditions of naturalisation.
A person whose passport is flagged for revocation is notified of the decision, so that he or she has a chance to appeal. A committee examines the appeal and issues a definitive ruling, communicated to the cabinet.
According to Politis, about a month ago Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou granted a request to an MP – Akel’s Irini Charalambidou – for access to the list of providers who processed applications for passports that turned out to be “problematic”.
The document was classified, however, so Charalambidou could view it privately but not publish it.
Also on October 18, Ioannou had refused to disclose to parliament the names of foreign investors whose ‘golden passports’ had been revoked. The request had been made by independent MP Alexandra Attalidou.
