The Cypriot Council of Minister has repealed the Cyprus Investment Programme (CIP). The Cyprus Investment Programme allowed applicants the possibility to apply for citizenship in Cyprus after investing a minimum of €2 million in real estate and a donation of €200,000.
Mr Kyriakos Koushos, the spokesman for the Cyprus government announced that the Cabinet of Ministers accepted a recommendation by the Interior and Finance Ministry to cancel the Cyprus Investment Programme. The official date of cancellation of the Citizenship by Investment Programme shall be the 1st of November 2020 and any applications submitted till then will be processed accordingly.
The decision to repeal the legislation which made it possible
for investors to apply for citizenship in Cyprus through investment
came as a result of a report which highlighted procedural
deficiencies, lack of proper due diligence checks and a
long-standing weakness of the provisions of the Cyprus Investment
Programme. In a statement, the office of the Cypriot
President said that the proposal to cancel the CIP was made in
response to weaknesses in the CIP that could be exploited.
Cyprus' attorney-general appointed a panel that will recruit
lawyers, accountants, and economists to work on a six-week probe of
the alleged CIP related misconduct. A separate investigation will
be conducted by the Cypriot Auditor General.
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