DOES FAILURE TO DISCLOSE THE CURRENT LEGAL PROBLEMS OF THE MIGRATION INVESTMENT INDUSTRY TO BUYERS CONSTITUTE FRAUD?

 

This morning I read a lengthy article by an individual who claims to hold a doctorate, and is in the migration investment industry in Dubai, concerning all the advantages of acquiring a Saint Kitts Citizenship by Investment (CB) passport. The article touted the future construction of a massive performing arts center in Basseterre, touted as being only a small part of the benefits of purchasing an SKN passport. What the article did NOT say is that anyone traveling around Saint Kitts would see unfinished and abandoned construction sites everywhere, all testaments to the systemic problems that the CBI program has, with no solution in sight. Is the failure of the CBI vendors to disclose all the major problems with the Saint Kitts program fraud? Let's discuss.

None of the companies currently selling Saint Kitts or Saint Lucia CBI or CIP are telling prospective purchasers that there is a huge $150m RICO suit filed in the United States, alleging massive fraud, money laundering and corruption. Some of the same companies selling those passports are actually guilty of selling illegally-discounted citizenships, which is a felony under the laws of the jurisdictions that offer them. Does this abject failure to make such required disclosures amount to fraud in the inducement?

Add to this all the other negative aspects of holding a CBI passport: that it can be revoked without any Due Process; that it exposes the holder to being targeted by Western law enforcement agencies simply by virtue of having a passport used by transnational criminals, spies, tax cheats, sanctions evaders, and all the Usual Suspects, and you wonder whether how any court of competent jurisdiction could do anything other than rule against CBI vendors, in a civil, or even criminal, court of law? 

Let's also remember that these Caribbean countries have a long and sordid history of being tax havens, popular destinations for dirty money seeking to escape law enforcement seizure and forfeiture, and were formerly designated as Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCT) by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Do we simply forget that they were global pariahs in the past? That history should be disclosed, in an overabundance of caution, by any seller of a product coming from that region.

Don't be surprised if unhappy CBI purchasers seeking relief through the courts when their precious passports are summarily revoked, or if  they run into serious legal problems, simply because of the passport they present to customs & immigration upon arrival one day.