NEW U.S. POLICY: WORK WITH THE EU TO CLOSE SCHENGEN ACCESS TO THE EAST CARIBBEAN CBI PASSPORT HOLDERS

 

If you closely read the American policy statement, made jointly with the EU and the UK, regarding the denial of the use of economic passports by Russian Oligarchs, you saw that it contained a note that the US Executive Branch was cooperating with Europe to remove visa-free access by CBI passport holders to the Schengen Zone. This important detail seems to have gotten lost in the focus upon Malta, as it is the only EU Member state that still sells Citizenship by Investment passports with their Schengen Access.

What this means is that the United States will now be working with the EU and UK to close visa-free privileges to enter Europe to the holders of CBI passports issued by the Five East Caribbean (EC) states, St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia and Grenada. This an important development, given the large number of Russian nationals who have purchased them, but it affects all the individuals from other nations who employ the EC-issued CBI passports.

If you are't familiar with the EC CBI passport programmes, the basic reasons applicants have lined up for them is basically the Schengen Zone access; they cannot be used to freely enter the U.S. and Canada. When they will not longer allow their holders to access Europe, their utility is so greatly diminished, that they will most likely no longer be of interest to the citizens of high-risk countries who are typical customers.

These programmes will most likely die for lack of interest, and since they have been sources of much-needed income for EC jurisdictions whose tourist economies have suffered due to the pandemic, it will create major problems for their ability to fund their governments' budgets. It will also be the end of the gravy train of corruption for their leaders, who have diverted payments, extorted bribes and kickbacks, and grown fat from the dirty money being laundered through the EC programmes. 

For decades, US law enforcement has only watched as career criminals, intelligence agent, and corrupt Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) have moved the proceeds of crime through these economic passport schemes., but they may now become useless to their purchasers, as an unexpected consequence of the American response to the War in the Ukraine.