Have you seen what amounts to be a CBI client advisory service advertised online, offering advice and counsel on which Citizenship by Investment is right for the inquiring investor?
What does a lawyer see when he looks at a government-licensed economic citizenship program, purchased by his high net worth client, acting without the benefit of competent legal counsel? If his client, now unhappy with his six figure investment for a major, valid reason, comes to him with a serious problem, he does his research, explores legal theories, and considers what cause of action has the best chance of success. He sees a well-oiled public relations sales campaign, run efficiently by the investment migration industry, which focuses on the number of visa-free jurisdictions that the holder of a specific CBI passport can visit this month, but neglects to educate the consumer about what negative events loom on the horizon. He sees the programs themselves falling over each other, in friendly competition, trying to sound like the gold standard in the industry, while the leaders of the Caribbean CBI states and their Cabinet officers, who run the CIUs, are exposed in major media or lawsuits for money laundering, fraud and systemic corruption. He sees troubled national governments taking steps to rein in such programs, which have become a threat to their national security, increased white collar crime dangers, and field day for bribes and kickbacks by industry players. So, what will he do? Threaten or bring a civil action for failure of the operators to detail negative information in their marketing materials, or for material misstatement of fact? How will be make his client whole, whose investment may just be a liability just waiting to happen, the next time he presents that passport at at international airport of entry, and ends up being interrogated, being subject of a law enforcement investigation, or worse deported? Is his EU/UK visa-free entry, the sole reason he purchased in the first place, now subject to close screening or restrictions? I am waiting to see what the first wave of litigation over CBI passports will look like; perhaps you should, too.











































