BUYING MORE THAN ONE ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP? LET THE BUYER BEWARE; YOU MAY NOT LIKE THE CONSEQUENCES

We noticed recently an opinion, rendered by a Citizenship by Investment (CBI or CIP) consultancy, advising prospective purchasers of a second passport that circumstances within the country whose passport you spend a large amount of money on may change in the future, perhaps decreasing its attractiveness, or the number of visa-free jurisdictions it allows you to enter. It then tacitly suggested that, to hedge your bets, you secure more than one citizenship, complete with passport, to reduce the risk that untoward events in the near future may lessen the worth and value of the sole passport you acquired.

The article cautioned buyers to be aware that a number of the countries that are advertised as your best choice, because of the large number of visa-free or visa-upon-arrival jurisdictions you may access, may not be such a great deal, because a substantial number that allow trouble-free visits do NOT allow permanent residency and /or the right to work or be employed, or to make certain investments. Therefore, some may not be such a great deal after all.

My own personal reservations regarding the possession of multiple second citizenships is that many of the world's most notorious transnational white collar criminals, and spies, are often arrested with several of these valuable identity documents on their person, generally with different names, date & places of birth cleverly inscribed by corrupt CIU officials. Do you really want to be targeted by some foreign law enforcement agency as a potential career criminal or worse?

Additionally, the more second citizenships you acquire, the greater the chances that one or more of those countries is a former (or current) offshore tax haven, where dirty money is accepted, making you even more of a possible target.

Therefore, kindly resist the consulting firm's advise that you load up on a couple Caribbean, European or Pacific passports, to minimize risk, for you may end up buying a problam from which you cannot easily or quickly escape or evade in your global travels.

TEN MILLION IMAGES SEIZED FROM SOUTH AFRICAN WEB DESIGNER AND REALTOR CHARGED WITH 24 COUNTS OF MONEY LAUNDERING IN MAJOR INTERNATIONAL CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CASE

A Randburg, South Africa web designer and her partner, a former real estate agent, are facing a potential 360 years of prison time, after their arrest in an international investigation, where millions of sexually explicit images and videos involving minors were seized by the authorities from the defendants. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) announced that an undisclosed amount of cash was also seized, and that it has opposed bail. South Africa reportedly has a fifteen year minimum sentence for money.

Both of the accused, DARRYN WILKEN and TIONA MOODLEY, are expected to be charged with possession, creation and distribution of child pornography, contravention of the country's Drug Trafficking Act, multiple counts of money laundering, the acquisition and possession of proceeds from unlawful activities, possession of stolen property and fraud.

Their bond hearing has been postponed at the request of defence counsel. Local media reports that the NPA announced that millions were wired into Wilken's account from abroad in one year. it is not known whether his bank reported them as suspicious transactions, but if they were claimed to be incoming funds for real estate purchases, which are often passed in without further inquiry in South Africa, they may have come in unnoticed.  Moodley is also accused of attempting to destroy evidence before her arrest.

Upcoming Africa Financial Crime Seminar:

https://titc.io/kenneth-rijock-webinar-africa-special

SCANDAL-RIDDEN CHINESE CBI CONSULTANCY HANG SHENG RELOCATES TO DUBAI, FORMS VIRTUAL COMPANY UNDER ANOTHER NAME TO DECEIVE PURCHASERS AND REGULATORS

If you were wondering why you haven't heard much about HANG SHENG, the Chinese-owned passport sales consultancy accused of selling thousands of illegally-discounted Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports from the Caribbean, it has resurfaced virtually as TISORO GLOBAL, complete with AI-generated fake testimonials, a non-existent prestigious address in DUBAI, and a bogus CEO (ADNAN SHAUKAT) who formerly worked for RIF TRUST. This definitely is not, as advertised, a company with 200 offices, operating in 66 countries, notwithstanding its glossy website; We cannot find any brick-and-mortar physical offices.

Its Youtube channel appears to have only nine or ten viewers, all of them courtesy of Artificial intelligence creation; It has NOT appeared in Forbes, the NY Times ,CNN, or any of the other logos splashed upon its website. Our Middle East sources advise that, in the pictures of the CEO announcement, you can see clearly that the company is Hang Sheng.

It boldly states that it partners with financing entities for CBI purchases in Grenada, which deserves further inquiry, and may violate that country's CBI regulations. And are they selling CBI for cash in Pakistan? We hope that Dubai's financial regulators take a close look at the company, as well as the CIUs in the five East Caribbean states with CBI programs. 

UNIQUE MONEY LAUNDERING ISSUES FACING SOUTH AFRICA WILL BE INCLUDED IN UPCOMING SEMINAR "UNMASKING AFRICA'S FINANCIAL UNDERWORLD"

For those readers who wondered about the content in my upcoming seminar " Unmasking Africa's Financial Underworld," we will be publishing a syllabus shortly. A major segment in the two-hour presentation will cover the unique money laundering issues facing South African compliance officers, auditors, accountants and attorneys, together with solutions I have learned from my decades of experience on both sides of the law, advising law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and the private sector. Having served a five-year tour with a South Africa-based international database of high-risk individuals and entities, I am familiar with the country's financial crime problems, and will be offering solutions that I have learned are highly effective; join me on February 19th and 20th at 3-4 PM SAST.

For further information: https://titc.io/kenneth-rijock-webinar-africa-special

HAS THE COLOMBIAN MONEY LAUNDERER ALEX SAAB MORAN RETURNED T0 A LIFE OF CRIME, VOIDING HIS PARDON?

I am seeing a whole lot of compliance officers accessing my article that displays ALEX SAAB MORAN's bogus diplomatic passport, issued by the regime in Venezuela, when it attempted to evade his pending extradition to face the music in the United States.Saab was exchanged for a number of American oil executives held on political charges, effectively as hostages, by Venezuela. The money laundering evidence against Saab was overwhelming, and he should be serving a life sentence in an American prison.

Has he returned to his criminal career as the. money launderer of choice for Venezuela's reigning dictator, NICOLAS MADURO, and his inner circle? if so, and since he is known to prefer US Dollars as a laundryman, he he now voided the terms of his pardon? We are curious to know why all of a sudden everyone is looking at the expired "diplomatic passport;" is Saab moving dirty greenbacks again? We will be watching.

UNMASKING AFRICA'S FINANCIAL UNDERWORLD

My concerns about the total absence of current information about the unique money laundering problems of the African continent were reinforced last year after I attended DECODING FINANCIAL CRIME, and fielded questions from attendees about the need for effective solutions to their financial crime issues. Therefore, I am presenting this two-part seminar in February, where I will analyze those region-specific AML/CFT problems, and offer my solutions, from my unique perspective as a former practising money launderer who used many of the techniques that presently plague African-based compliance officers, accountants, auditors and law enforcement agencies. Learn how to identify and interdict, in real-time, money laundering operations as they are currently being conducted against African banks and businesses.

If you are in United States, the seminars begin at 8:00AM EST on the dates listed below. I hope to see you there.

For further information:

https://titc.io/kenneth-rijock-webinar-africa-special

WILL THERE NOW BE ADDITIONAL INDICTMENTS IN THE BVI MONEY LAUNDERING CASE OF ANDREW FAHIE?

All three of the defendants in former British Virgin Islands Premier ANDREW FAHIE's money laundering and narcotics trafficking US Federal criminal case in South Florida have been convicted, sentenced and are currently serving their sentences; so why now are we seeing sealed filings in the docket in Fahie's case ? Obviously, there is further activity, regarding additional indictments. Remember that it has long been known that Fahie possessed first-hand knowledge of criminal activity of OTHER Caribbean government leaders, but that he stubbornly refused to cooperate with US law enforcement, insisting that he go to trial, but now that he is dealing with a long prison sentence, perhaps he has changed his tune.

After his initial arrest, there were rumors that he had boasted he had incriminating evidence against a certain senior government official in Antigua & Barbuda, and that he was going to cooperate; we waited for that to occur, but he held fast with demanding to go to trial. Was he threatened with retaliation? We cannot say, but these back-to-back sealed filings in his District Court case suggest he may have changed his tune; we note that his Release Date on the BOP website is July 4, 2033. We will continue to monitor his case. Is someone perhaps losing sleep over in Saint John's, the capital of Antigua, these days, we wonder?

WILL M23 REBEL FORCES THAT HAVE CAPTURED GOMA IN THE DRC RELEASE THREE CHINESE JUST SENTENCED THERE TO SEVEN YEARS FOR MONEY LAUNDERING?

Bin Laden and Mustafa Setmariam Nasar in Afghanistan

Sentenced to seven years in prison in Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for money laundering and other crimes and fined $600,000, three Chinese nationals that were arrested in possession of $400,000 and ten bars of gold, could be released, as M24 Rebels, supported by neighboring Rwanda, have captured the city in a fierce battle, as part of their campaign to control the mineral-rich Eastern Congo region. Rebel groups frequently open prisons, freeing all the inmates, believing them to be opposed to the sitting government. It is feared that this will be the case.

I recall when the start of the civil war in Syria resulted in the unanticipated release of MUSTAFA SETMARIAM NASAR, the leading theoretician of Al-Qaeda, and the brains behind the Madrid Train Bombing of 2004. Nasar, a close associate of Osama Bin Laden, (see attached photo) has been quietly placed there by the CIA for indefinite incarceration. His arrest in Venezuela, early on in the Global War on Terrorism, was not disclosed to the American public, who were unaware of the presence of senior terrorists in the Western Hemisphere that posed a clear and present danger to the United States. I was personally involved in the surveillance operation that resulted in Setmariam's capture, otherwise the story would never be told.

WHEN IS A NIGERIAN FRAUDSTER NOT A NIGERIAN? WHEN HE IS POSING AS A WEST INDIAN, WIELDING A PASSPORT FROM AN EAST CARIBBEAN CBI STATE, AND FURTHER EXPLOITING NORTH AMERICANS AND EUROPEANS WITH HIS BOGUS NATIONALITY

I am extremely disturbed by CHRISTIAN NESHEIM's comment on Linkedin, boasting that there are twenty-four companies in Nigeria selling Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports to Nigerian nationals. Nigeria is the epicenter for African-based financial crime, which targets victims in North America and in Europe. Who else do you think has the US Dollars to pay a six figure fee for a CBI passport, Christian? Those citizenships are financially out of reach for most Nigerians. Believe me, the last thing the West needs is more Nigerian fraudsters, hiding behind a Caribbean passport to perpetrate their scams.

Nigerian nationals can travel visa-free to a very small number of countries, especially those in the developed world, in large part because of significant financial crime abroad being conducted by Nigerian nationals, a small portion of the population, but extremely active in romance fraud, pig butchering, investment fraud, sextortion and other types of white collar crime that exploits unsophisticated victims. EC CBI states that alter places of birth, names and birthdates on economic citizenships make the tasks of law enforcement in identifying the criminals much more difficult.

Given that Nigerians can freely travel visa-free, to the five East Caribbean CBI states that have passport sales programs, it is strongly suggested that those few wealthy, legitimate Nigerians in need of a second passport journey there in person, and that the obscene number of passport vendors and consultants be closed down by Nigerian law enforcement agencies as threats to National Security, and knowing facilitators of criminal activity. Nigeria's criminal elite should not have the ability to disguise themselves from being identified through dodgy economic citizenship passports.

CHINA'S HANG SENG BANK, IMPLICATED IN $ 2.5bn CARIBBEAN CBI PASSPORT SCANDAL, NOW FINED USD$8.7MILLION BY HONG KONG REGULATORS FOR CHURNING INVESTOR ACCOUNTS

The Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) has fined HANG SENG BANK USD$ 8.7m, for influencing bank clients into making "frequent and excessive transactions" in the purchase and sale of securities by the bank on their behalf, between 2014 and 2023. For those readers not familiar with securities laws, that is an illegal technique known as CHURNING, where the broker convinces the client to make multiple transactions, which may not benefit him, or be part of any rational investment objectives, but which generates lucrative commissions for the broker. It is, of course, also illegal in most jurisdictions, including the United States. As a young lawyer representing brokerage houses in Miami, I saw a number of Churning cases, where the stockbroker convinced the investor to engage in many transactions, where there was obviously no investment strategy, but were intended to line the pockets of the broker with commission payments; This is what Hang Seng is being fined millions for.

Hang Seng has been the subject of a number of articles on our financial crime blog recently; Let us draw your attention to IS HSBC-OWNED HANG SENG BANK LIABLE ...? https://rijock.blogspot.com/2024/08/philippe-martinez-is-officer-at-msr.html  The bank reportedly received repeated payments made by applicants for Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) who paid illegally-discounted fees for passports, which it later funnelled to NATIONAL BANK OF ST. KITTS-NEVIS-ANGUILLA and BANK OF SAINT LUCIA, which has been alleged to constitute money laundering on a grand scale. 

See also: https://rijock.blogspot.com/2024/07/illegally-discounted-cbi-passports.html                                                                                                                                 

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

Henry Browne KC

A number of readers who read my recent article CONFESSIONS OF A MONEY LAUNDERER have requested further details on what happened when I moved millions of dollars of my clients' narco-profits into Saint Kitts. Back in the 1980s, when I was smuggling their criminal proceeds out of the Continental United States, and into the tax havens of the East Caribbean, I was using the services of the Kittitian attorney William (Billy) Herbert, Jr., then the Ambassador Plenipotentiary serving the newly independent state of Saint Kitts & Nevis, but working with me mainly from his chambers in nearby Anguilla; Only rarely did I work out of Saint Kitts.

There came a time when Billy Herbert became compromised by the DEA and SCOTLAND YARD, who threatened him with dire consequences if he failed to cooperate, resulting in law enforcement being given the names of all his American clients with dirty money in a local bank in which Dr. Herbert had an ownership interest. A magistrate judge ordered all those illicit funds frozen forthwith, and Attorney Herbert dashed off to a holiday abroad, while all his files were being opened and examined in his office. The clients had twelve million dollars at risk.

St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla flag

A few short weeks later, reportedly after the DEA failed to produce incriminating evidence as promised, the magistrate unfroze the money, and the bank's president called me in my Miami office, asking urgently for instructions. Following existing orders I had once received from Dr. Herbert, I ordered all the accounts there of American drug traffickers, including those whom I no longer represented, but who had substantial wealth there, to a Saint Kitts bank account of attorney HENRY BROWNE, who I knew had a relationship with Billy.

St. Kitts flag until September 1983

When I next visited Basseterre to make arrangement to transfer the funds, Browne demanded one-third from every account that I had transferred there, plus USD$5000 from each. There was, of course, no prior arrangement for that amount of "attorney's fees," but given that my clients could not go into court in Saint Kitts to contest fees over drug profits, I grudgingly allowed him to take what was what lawyers refer to as a clearly excessive fee. Of course, my clients were extremely unhappy, but knew there was nothing they could do about it, without needlessly incriminating themselves; Browne knew that.

William Valentine Herbert, Jr.

I was forced to initially transfer the money to Saint Kitts, due to Dr. Herbert's betrayal of the attorney-client privilege, and Browne took full advantage of my predicament. Billy never lived to spend the twenty five million dollars I believe he earned from working with drug traffickers and terrorist financiers; Henry Browne KC was never charged in any American drug trafficking cases, to the best of my knowledge. Whether he also cooperated with US and UK law enforcement back in the day I cannot say, but I did always wonder why he is the One that Got Away. 

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S DESIGNATION OF NARCOTICS TRAFFICKERS AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS COULD AFFECT CORRUPT CARIBBEAN CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT PROGRAMS AS WELL AS PASSPORT HOLDERS

Upon taking office, Donald Trump on January 20 issued an Executive Order designating Narcotics Cartels as terrorist organizations and SGDTs. While this Order is primarily intended to give American law enforcement additional tools with which to fight the Chinese-manufactured and Mexican-distributed drug Fentanyl, which has been deemed a National Security threat, within fourteen days from that Order, American agencies will be naming those other organizations that they consider direct or indirect threats.

I have been involved in the dark business of money laundering, on one side or the other, for more than half a century. I began as a young bank attorney, watching as America ignored rogue Caribbean tax havens launder the proceeds of Colombian drug crime with impunity. Next, I spent a decade as a career money launderer, concentrating my operations in those same offshore financial centers. Then, after serving time for RICO, I trained and advised a number of law enforcement agencies and the intelligence community in North America, assisting them in catching people like me. After 9/11, and to the present day, I have functioned as a Financial Crime Consultant, assisting the financial sector combat money laundering, which is a central tool of financial crime.

I was, fate will have it, present at the birth of the Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) industry forty-two years ago, and not only am I aware of the intent of its creator that it was intended to assist narcotics traffickers evade detection, arrest and conviction, but that I participated in some of the initial sales of economic passports to prominent leaders of Colombian narcotics cartels. I also became aware that money launderers working for the cartels used CBI passports to travel unimpeded, clean the proceeds of crime, and facilitate the smuggling of illegal drugs into North America. Corrupt Caribbean leaders, intent on maximizing their profits and personal wealth, sold passports to anyone with US Dollars, including those working for the cartels. America, for one reason or another, ignored this illicit activity, and largely stayed out of the Caribbean, affording corrupt actors the opportunity to continue to support organized crime's laundering efforts.

Therefore, the question is when, not if, US law enforcement now will use the tools available in the law for Countering the Financing of Terrorism, against the five East Caribbean states with CBI programs, as well as by directly targeting those laundrymen holding economic passports, especially those Chinese nationals holding EC CBI passports, who use them to move and clean the proceeds of drug crime. It is high time to clean up that financial nightmare in America's backyard.