Portugal’s Russian golden visa ‘scam’
By Natasha
Donn -11th March 2022
https://www.portugalresident.com/portugals-russian-golden-visa-scam/
Expresso
lifts lid on how oligarchs can wriggle round ‘the rules’ and European sanctions
São
Cristóvão e Neves (better known to Brits as Saint Kitts) is a dual-island
nation in the Caribbean with around 55,000 inhabitants. It is a former British
colony, and as such operates as both an ‘fiscal offshore’ and a haven for those
seeking to purchase citizenship.
“All you
need to do is invest 150,000 dollars in the archipelago, and within around six
months, the whole family of said investor can become citizens of the islands
‘with no obligation ever to set foot on them’.
This
‘golden passport’ serves to allow free-travel to 157 countries, Portugal
included – and (this is the interesting part for Portuguese-focused readers),
this ‘nationality of convenience’ can also be used to obtain a golden visa in
European countries, Portugal included.
Since 2012,
when the golden visa scheme was introduced, SEF borders and foreigners agency
has attributed 35 coveted ARIs (authorisations of residency through investment,
more commonly known as ‘golden visas’) to citizens of Saint Kitts “whose
nationality of origin have not been included in statistics”.
In other
words, these 35 golden visas holders, with free passage in Schengen Space/ UK/
Hong Kong/ Singapore “hide the real weight of certain countries’ recourse to
golden visas, namely Russia”, says Expresso.
“According
to data published by the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI) there are
431 Russians in Portugal with ARI (golden visas) of which 21 live here
permanently. But there will be many more. Dozens do not appear in official
numbers because they obtained their visas with the passport that was most
convenient for them. The one that was most discreet; would raise fewer alerts…”
Such
strategies aren’t confined to citizens of Saint Kitts. They can be citizens of
Dominica, Antigua, Barbuda, Granada and Vanuatu, explains Expresso. “All have
requests (for golden visas) filed and authorised in Portugal”.
Expresso’s
source adds that there are also the situations of Russians with dual
nationalities (countries that were formerly part of the USSR, like Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, even Kyrgyzstan).
If one adds
the ARIs conceded to these citizens, there are another 105 attributed by
Portugal.
As the
paper explains, ‘part of these will be Russians’.
And here
Expresso addresses the political concerns about Portugal’s golden visas policy.
It hasn’t only helped Russians using ‘convenient nationalities’. It has helped
Iranians, Syrians, Indians – all using Caribbean ‘offshores’ to camouflage
their true origins.
None of
this is honourable – but neither is it ‘exclusive to Portugal’, and as the
power behind the scheme Paulo Portas said years ago, if Portugal wanted to be
honourable about this, it would simply lose substantial revenue to other
countries with fewer scruples.
Portugal
has “minutely analysed Russian golden visa holders”
… and found
them all to be ‘squeaky clean’.
Put another
way, these wealthy people have invested around €278 million in Portugal in the
last decade, and none of their names have ‘set off any alarms’, says Expresso
Not so the
‘minute analysis’ of wealthy Russians applying for ARIs.
“At the end
of January” (long before sanctions brought in because of the Russian invasion
of Ukraine) SEF received a request for a golden visa from a Russian woman
intent on purchasing a property.
“At the
same time, the applicant asked for ‘family reunification’ on the back of ARI
concession. The list of names included, “among others, her husband”.
“She
believed that she would rapidly receive the authorisation of residency and
could bring her entire family”, a source for SEF has told Expresso.
“Identification
of her husband was registered in the database”, and when the list of Russian
oligarchs sanctioned by the EU was made public, his name was there…
For now,
the request for ARI has been blocked. A source for the office of minister
Francisca Van Dunem (running MAI and the Justice department for the time being)
told Expresso: “all processes pertaining to Russian citizens have been
suspended” – and will presumably remain so until the EU changes its policy.
As to the
identity of this ‘thwarted oligarch’, Expresso has no real leads. Various
sources have said the whole subject is “under lock and key” in the office of
SEF’s national director Lieutenant-general Moniz Botelho.
“Very soon
a new overview of requests for ARIs will be performed as this week more names
were added to the blacklist, namely of businessmen in the transport, telecoms
and chemical sectors”, says the paper.
On
Wednesday, the European Parliament voted for an end of the EU golden visa
regimes as they run currently. This follows years in which MEPs and NGOs have
been pushing for this kind of joint resolution, in the name of transparency and
the combat of money-laundering/ corruption/ organised crime.
The way
forwards now will be ‘rigorous background checks’; total investigation of
sources of wealth – and, with regard to Russian oligarchs, says Expresso, ‘zero tolerance’.
“All Member
States will have to cease, with immediate effect, regimes of citizenship and
residency through investment of any Russian applicants. Portugal has already
done this. But the appeals from the European Parliament did not stop there. MPs
want to ‘look back’ and re-evaluate all visas approved in the last few years,
“exploring all possibilities offered by national and European Union
legislation” in order to “guarantee that no Russian citizen with financial,
business or any other kind of links to the regime of (Vladimir) Putin maintains
his/ her rights to citizenship or residency and/ or to guarantee that these
people are temporarily prohibited from exercising these rights”.
Where this
leaves Portugal’s richest citizen Roman Abramovich – conceded Portuguese
nationality on the basis of Sephardic Jew ancestry that is still under some
level of reappraisal – we can only ‘wait and see’.
Expresso’s
article concludes: “Since the launch of Portugal’s golden visa programme 10
years ago, 10,442 ARI have been attributed. Russians have been the 5th
nationality most benefitted”.
The
nationality at the top of the list is China.
Golden visas granted to Russians in Portugal
attacked
Tweets by the former MEP Ana Gomes point the finger at
the golden visa policy.
By TPN, in
Portugal, Politics · 24 Feb 2022 ·
Ana Gomes
asks the Government to sanction Roman Abramovich and withdraw his Portuguese
citizenship.
Ana Gomes
published several tweets on the pretext of golden visas granted to Russian
citizens in Portugal.
She
tweeted: “We wait for @antoniocostapm to publish a list of ALL #VistosGold
beneficiaries and resident family members? So that we can be sure that we are
not giving national and European protection to more mafiosi, kleptocrats,
oligarchs etc? Why does Passos/Portas' immoral policy continue?”
In another
recent tweet, the former MEP left an alert about Roman Abramovich, one of the
best-known Russian millionaires and who recently obtained Portuguese
nationality under the Nationality Law as a Sephardic Jew.
“Roman
Abramovich at the top of #RussianOligarchs names targeted by #sanctions. What
does the government expect?@antoniocostapm to act, withdraw his citizenship,
freeze his assets, ban him from entering the country, etc.????”
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