THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF HAVING YOUR CBI PASSPORT CANCELLED CAN BE SEVERE

Longtime readers of my articles know that I spent many years working for two companies that maintain databases of high-risk individuals and entities that are used by compliance officers at financial institutions, and for that reason I am familiar with the process through which court records, sanctions lists, and other information will cause someone to appear on those lists, which is often a major reason that a banker will decline to open an account, or why others conducting due diligence for a client will veto a proposed transaction or business relationship. Those databases are quite highly regarded in the compliance world, and they serve a necessary purpose for risk managers.

You should already be familiar with the litigation over the unfolding scandal in the five East Caribbean CBI states, where a Chinese passport vendor is alleged to have sold thousands of St. Kitts and St. Lucia citizenships with accompanying EU-friendly passports at major discounts. See MSR MEDIA vs. LES KHAN, Case No.: 24-cv-01248-KKM-AAS (M.D. FL.). Those sales violated the CBI laws of the jurisdictions which issued them, and many were issued based upon bogus and counterfeit identification.

Many EC jurisdictions have now gone on record to declare that they will cancel all such fraudulent passports; Dominica has already announced that a number of them have been revoked, and we must assume that the reason was that they were purchased at an unlawful and unauthorized discount.

The point has been raised, with concern, that the public notices of passport cancellation will all be picked up by the commercial database industry, and duly entered therein. Most compliance officers will judge these entries to constitute negative information, and we foresee them denying or closing bank accounts, based upon the fact that the passports were obtained in violation of the laws regarding their issuance. Also, due diligence inquiries may also turn up the cancellation, and result in a report to a client to avoid the individual. Whether it also affects employment prospects, credit rating, or credibility in some other forum we cannot say, but one must assume it to be of some consequence.

These Unintended Consequences of saving money by purchasing at a discount, should be considered by anyone considering applying for a CBI citizenship & passport anywhere. As a matter of fact, this is but one more reason to retain the services of a competent, experienced attorney to represent you, before entering into ANY contract for economic citizenship. Do not rely upon the so-called "legal experts" at the CBI consultancy, for they are not admitted to practice law in the countries where you are considering citizenship. Get your own lawyer, please, or risk problems which you may not have been made aware of when you acquired that prized passport. Caveat emptor, please.