AFTER A TWO BILLION DOLLAR MONEY LAUNDERING SCANDAL, SINGAPORE BANKS START LOOKING CLOSELY AT ALL ACCCOUNTS OPENED WITH CBI PASSPORTS

For many years, we have warned that acquiring a Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport carries with it the possibility that one may be deemed high risk, and targeted ,when one uses it as identification, simply because CBI is a favorite tool of international criminals, and you therefore will be considered a possible white collar criminal for that reason. There are several unique risks associated with some CBI passports that the products' vendors never disclose to you, and for that reason, applicants should always retain the services of a competent attorney to advise them, although most rarely do. Most purchasers are subject to a sales pitch that they buy into, not thinking that there may be valid reasons to say no.

Here's but one example of why an educated consumer must have independent legal advice when spending the significant sum for an economic citizenship. This week most of the financial institutions in Singapore started reviewing all new accounts, as well as transactions, where the customer used a passport from a country other than his own, acquired through investment, meaning a CBI passport. The reason for this unusual, and time-consuming, step is the fact that the country just went through a S$2.2bn (USD$1.8bn) money laundering scandal, where the Chinese organized crime laundrymen used a wide variety of economic citizenship passports to move the proceeds of mainland China crime through Singaporean banks, including a number of Family offices. And yes, St. Kitts & Nevis CBI passports were used to commit some of those crimes, which they most likely bought at an illegal discount, using fake identification from the same Chinese passport vendor now being sued in the United States in the $1.5bn RICO case.

Is this the Shape of Things to Come? Will your CBI passport soon subject you to intense scrutiny, because many of them have become an important Tool of Crime? we cannot say, but we will be watching.