The Cyprus Investment Programme has indeed been amended in order to include stricter due diligence procedures to prevent money laundering activities and abuses.
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What due diligence procedures could be imposed on Cyprus CBI applicants to prevent money laundering?
I have several clients who are interested in the residency- and citizenship-by-investment programs of Cyprus. However, I have heard recently that Cyprus might impose tougher due diligence procedures to prevent money laundering activities and abuses of the programs. Could this impact the processing time and required documents for applicants?
Answers
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The same criteria regarding anti-money laundering principles still apply as they were before. The source of wealth and source of funds of the applicants will be needed to be proved.
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Some measures that could be imposed would be stricter procedures regarding proof of funds and tracing the funds. Currently, there are no official updates on what these possible stricter measures may be.
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The due diligence procedure is now undertaken by two consulting firms. What the applicant needs to do is provide proof of his/her source fo funds, i.e. the investment money must be justified by tax returns or company audited accounts.
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Ensuring that the AML procedure is followed and that the source of wealth of your clients establishes and can be justified to the authorities is a priority. Once all the required documents are present, then the government authorities should not take more time to review the case.