The Russian businessman Albert Avdolyan was struck by EU sanctions on the Moscow War in Ukraine in Ukraine, but can partially bypass the Bloc Traveling ban thanks to a Maltese passport which he bought within the framework of a “golden” visa program which faces a European court decision on his future this week.
Avdolyan, who received his passport in 2015, is one of the seven people who acquired Maltese citizenship and were then struck by the American, EU or Ukrainian sanctions on the Russian war in Ukraine, according to a count of the financial times based on names published in the Gazette government of the country and disclosed documents.
Passport holders are part of a larger group of 16 people who managed to pay Maltese citizenship despite politically exposed individuals, or who later appeared on sanctions lists or were found guilty of crimes.
Malta is the last EU country which still offers citizenship to sell, pulling the European Commission, which brought the country to the European Court of Justice in order to stop the program.
The Commission argued that the regime “undermines both the essence and the integrity of EU citizenship”. The court is expected to reign Tuesday.
The programs offering citizenship or the residence to money have been common in Europe and in the Caribbean for decades, but have aroused criticism. When the United Kingdom abandoned its gold visas, he said that the program had given “corrupt elite possibilities to access the United Kingdom”. The European Commission said that these programs pose “significant risks, in particular corruption, money laundering and tax evasion”.
“It is an insurance policy for some, it is an exit strategy for some … These regimes are very problematic for several reasons,” said Eka Rostamashvili de Transparency International. “It opens the doors of the EU, so not only the doors of Malta.”
Rostomashvili said that it was a “trend” to Malta and in other countries offering money for citizenship that people would ask for passports “just before the sanctions are placed on them or just before a great scandal breaks and that criminal proceedings begin”.
People who buy Maltese passports become EU citizens with the right to live inside the block. They can easily open bank accounts and EU companies and go to many other countries without visa.
Citizenship requests in 2014, Avdolyan congratulated “reliability, security, peace, calm and people” from Malta.
Subsequently, among those who received Maltese passports, three people were subsequently subject to American sanctions on the war in Ukraine, and three other sanctioned by kyiv.
Sanctioned individuals include Evgeniya Vladimirovna Bernova, whom the United States has accused “of dearning misleading[ing] Double-use equipment “which could be used for military purposes” on behalf of Russian end users “. The United States said that it had” facilitated the export of the equipment. . . to end users of the government planned in Russia ”by a company based in Malta that it has exploited.
Bernova said that she had “acquired Maltese citizenship under a process of in -depth reasonable diligence and on several levels” and that she had “real links with Malta”, including a company which, according to her, was a “real investment in Malta, and nothing illegal or hidden”. She said that she had invested in film production on the island and also had “deeply personal reasons” to continue citizenship.
Bernova said the list of sanctions was a “poor understanding of the American authorities”.
At least one of the Maltese passports was subsequently revoked.
In addition to persons sanctioned or condemned later, people with Maltese citizenship also include political figures. The so-called politically exposed individuals are treated by regulators as having a particular risk of corruption.
Three members of the Saudi royal family – Prince Khaled and his sons Bader and Mishaal – received Maltese passports. There was no immediate response to a request for comments from Prince Khaled and his family through their business.
The Maltese government has also published a “Gilberto Eduardo Gerardo Cojuangco Teodoro” as a new citizen in 2016, the same name as the current secretary of national defense of the Philippines. A Teodoro lawyer said that he was “neither a citizen of Malta nor a holder of a Maltese passport”, but did not refuse to say if Teodoro had returned a passport since 2016.
No allegation of corruption was made against the Saudis or Teodoro.
The European Commission said: “EU values are not for sale. Investors’ citizenship regimes are a violation of EU law … They should be abolished. “
Malta obliges candidates to make a punctual investment of at least € 600,000, to buy or to rent a property, to make a donation of € 10,000 to charitable works and to live in the country for three years. Investment can be reduced in a single year for people who invest € 750,000.
Avdolyan, who has coal and gas companies in Russia, said in his request that “as a businessman, the holding of such a passport will greatly help my regular trips to Europe and in the world”.
Avdolyan, whose four children and wife have also acquired Maltese passports, can still go to Malta, although he was struck by EU sanctions in February for his companies “offering a substantial source of income” to the Russian government.
His sanctions lists note that he is “closely associated” with the giant of Rostec State weapons.
The documents of the private company Henley & Partners, which were disclosed to the project of report on organized and corruption crime and shared with other media, show that the Avdolyens received residence cards in 2014 and went to Malta four times the following year.
Henley designed and executed the “gold” passport system when he started in 2013.
The documents suggest that the Avdolyans spent about two weeks in the country, providing hotel and restaurant bills and reservations of private jets as proof. The properties they rented – including an “store apartment” in Sliema on the coast overlooking Valletta – were selected and managed by Henley, who paid the rent every year and emptied the mailbox monthly.
Identity Malte, the government body responsible for approving requests, said that Adodolyan, “in principle”, had fulfilled all the 12 months of residence in Malta. Avdolyan said: “We refuse to comment on the points indicated”.
Pavel Melnikov, a Russian millionaire, received a Maltese passport in 2015 and a passport of St Kitts and Nevis in 2012 with the help of Henley, according to disclosed files.
In 2018, the Finnish authorities made a descent into its properties in the Finnish archipelago of Turku. He was sentenced to tax and accounting fraud in Finland in February. His Malta citizenship has since been revoked.
Melnikov calls on the conviction and declared that he would dispute the revocation of his Maltese passport, which, according to him, took place “without legal reason”. His lawyer, Kai Kotiranta, said: “Melnikov denied all the misdeeds in Finland or elsewhere. He obtained his nationalities on the basis of local laws and authorizations, which are nothing new or not normal. ”
Melnikov said that he had obtained his Maltese citizenship “only to be able to live and move to Europe, and not to obtain tax alleviation. The Maltese passport was only obtained legally, by following all the legal requirements, and not by criminal regimes ”.
Another example is Kuksov sperm, which was imprisoned in the United Kingdom last year for having laundered the criminal funds. The crown prosecution service said the 24 -year -old had acted as a letter “to receive criminal money and deliver money bleached abroad”.
In the midst of similar revelations, Cyprus and Bulgaria have abandoned their pressure passport sales programs in Brussels. But the government of Malta maintains its program, arguing that it has tightened reasonable diligence controls and has prohibited Russian and Belarusian citizens from acquiring its passports.
“What Malta has done was sort of hacking the European Union,” said Matthew Caruana Galizia, from the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation. “We have created these common goods in the EU, and now the Member States are starting to eat in a way [away] to the. “”
US President Donald Trump announced plans this year for an American “gold card” worth $ 5 million. In Europe, countries like Portugal, Spain and Hungary always offer residence permits for species, but not passports.
Caruana Galizia’s mother Daphne, a journalist who revealed the nascent gold passports program in Malta, was killed by a car in 2017. Paul Caruana Galizia, her son, is now an FT journalist. The trial of two men accused of participation in his murder began Malta on Thursday.
The Maltese government has not responded to a request for comments.
Sarah Nicklin, spokesperson for Henley & Partners, said that she could not comment on individual cases due to missing information and data protection. She said that an individual “could pass all strict strict diligence tests imposed, but continue to engage in criminal activities”.
She said that “Malta has in fact demanded that the candidates establish a place of residence and other real links with the country … Henley & Partners has, at any time, respected laws and regulations in all countries where he operates.”
Henley, who previously received costs from the Maltese government for each successful request, is now one of the many companies that run the program.
Matthew Caruana Galizia said that improved reasonable diligence verifications did not solve the scheme because the problem was with people drawn to apply. “It is not with progressive changes that [you can] stop . . . Let the bad guys enter. It is more to do with the nature of the program itself, “he said.
Activists fear that a CJCE discloses in favor of Malta could embrace other countries like Cyprus to relaunch or open new programs.
“If this happens, we will probably see a race down … in terms of standards, in terms of checks,” explains Rostomashvili.
Additional report by Chris Cook in London, Richard Milne in Oslo, Polina Ivanova in Berlin and Ahmed Al Omran in Jeddah
