MAJOR MEDIA EXPOSES THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGERS POSED BY DOMINICA CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT PASSPORTS TO THE FINANCIAL WORLD

                      

If you have read the blockbuster article in the UK newspaper The Guardian this week, or the detailed analysis of the extraordinary dangers presented to the financial world by the OCCRP ( Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting), you know that not only are Dominica Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports used by many of the world transnational financial criminals and sanctions evaders, from Russia, Iran, North Korea and other high-risk jurisdictions, but that there may be as many as 10,000 economic passports sold to dodgy clients, and not reported by Dominican government authorities. Dominica is out of control, when it comes to freely selling its passports to all comers.

Please note that the CBI industry has hastened to mount an extensive (and expensive) countermedia campaign, extolling the virtues of both the passports for legitimate investors seeking to conceal their high-risk, visa-requiring origins, and the purported due diligence ability of Dominica's government agency responsible for vetting the applicants. DO NOT believe this sophisticated PR move for a minute; Dominica economic passports, which recently lost their visa-free status in the United Kingdom, afget many instances of fraudsters, corrupt PEPs and  other of the Usual Suspects using them to enter Europe, represent a danger to any bank which is foolish enough to accept them in its compliance department as evidence of low-risk status at account opening. It has become the favorite tool of financial criminals.

Therefore, as we have been warning for at least the past five years, compliance officers accept Dominica CBI passports at their peril. They often contain aliases, incorrect place of birth, and passport photos designed to defeat facial recognition technology. The holder is most likely someone you do not, and cannot allow to open an account at your bank, or conduct any transaction whatsoever, if you wish to protect your institution from exposure from money laundering and financial crime. Govern yourselves accordingly, ladies and gentlemen.