According to the latest report, the decision was made as part of an effort to repair the reputation tarnished by the scheme, which has often been criticized for its involvement in many illegal activities such as money laundering and corruption .
In this regard, Deputy Government Spokeswoman Niovi Parisinu stressed that these figures include 63 investors, as well as 159 relatives, including spouses, children and parents.
The Golden Passport scheme allowed wealthy foreigners to acquire Cypriot citizenship, provided that they met certain conditions and invested at least 2.5 million euros in business or real estate.
This scheme has made a significant contribution to the country's economy, attracting especially wealthy investors from China and Russia. But the program has often been criticized for the fact that its participants were involved in many illegal cases, such as money laundering and corruption.
As a result, the Cypriot authorities decided to cancel this program in 2020. In total, in the period from 2007 to 2020, within the framework of this program, the “gold” 6,779 foreigners received passports.
According to Deputy Government Spokesperson Niovi Parissinou, in October last year, the Cypriot government canceled the citizenship acquired under the Golden Visa scheme from ten people after investigations by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
An earlier report by the Court of Accounts found that the Cypriot golden passport scheme resulted in significant financial losses in public revenues, and the actions of a number of Cypriot government officials can also be classified as criminal acts.
Government spokesman Marios Pelecanos assured that the findings of the report would be “studied with due diligence and that all necessary measures will be taken against specific individuals, taking into account the opinion of the Attorney General.”