DID YOU BREAK THE LAW BY THE ACT OF ACQUIRING A CBI PASSPORT?

We see that there is a major dustup in the Investment Migration, or economic passport, industry this week, as it was publicly revealed that some government official in Saint Lucia published the names of one hundred individuals who purchased CIP passports, what they call Citizenship by Investment, there. It seems that, even though publication is expressly authorized under Saint Lucian law, nobody wants the world to know that they purchased a second passport.

Whether they call it privacy, secrecy or personal preference, we hit upon the Dirty Little Secret many CBI buyers know: they may have broken the law in their home country, or worse, by acquiring a second nationality. You see, many countries PROHIBIT dual citizenship, or cause your original nationality to be cancelled, when they have knowledge of that one exists; Some impose penalties when their citizens are caught engaging in this conduct.

We have zero sympathy for anyone caught up in this lie by his own government, and wonder whether they were counseled in advance by their personal attorney, who most certainly would have told them about this potential problem, or did they just decide not to tell their lawyer at all. Whatever the outcome, they have only themselves to blame for legal troubles, as well as their CBI sales agent, who was too busy detailing the advantages to disclose the dangers.

Good luck, extricating yourself from this knotty problem, if your economic passport is outed on the Internet; we call that Assumption of Risk in my world.