ILLEGALLY DISCOUNTED CBI PASSPORT PAYMENTS WERE FUNNELLED DIRECTLY TO HSBC'S HANG SENG BANK, TO AN ACCOUNT CONTROLLED BY CARIBBEAN GALAXY'S OWNER, ZHANG KUAN

 

An estimated USD$2.5bn, representing application fees for Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) Passports issued by Saint Kitts and Saint Lucia, which were illegally discounted by the CBI consultancy CARIBBEAN GALAXY REAL ESTATE LIMITED, were paid into Galaxy accounts at HANG SENG BANK, which is part of the HSBC Banking Group. The documents show that the individual who controls those accounts is ZHANG KUAN, the owner of Galaxy. Reportedly, none of those funds can be accounted for in the accounts of Saint Kitts and Saint Lucia.

 Galaxy is a major defendant in the $150m civil RICO lawsuit filed in Federal Court in the United States by MSR MEDIA against a number of individuals who are present or former government officials , which alleges that the company discounted the minimum legal purchase price of CBI citizenship and passports, that it was given thousands of files which are employed to file passport applications, and which were used to fraudulently issue passports sold for a fraction of the authorized price, which damaged other stakeholders in the CBI program, as applicants would be much more likely to choose to purchase an economic citizenship at a seriously reduced rate.

The role of Hang Seng Bank, HSBC Bank and Zhang Kuan, will now become a major focus in the American RICO case. In addition, Their potential exposure to claims of other CIP stakeholders, and to liability for possible violations of Federal criminal laws, are all issues which we shall analyze in future articles.