Thread by @bugdavem

Naturally, #Malta's phony regulator of the Henley #GoldenPassports Scheme recommends removing the one source of scrutiny of the programme by the fourth estate - publication of names.

Just one of the gems in the latest report by the IIP "Regulator": oriip.gov.mt/en/Documents/R…

Other gems include:

1/ The regulator grumbling that banks are treating the scheme and its dodgy applicants as high risk for money laundering:

2/ The bulk of applicants are Russian / Ex-USSR (craftily bundled up as "European") and Chinese:

3/ Chinese applicants for EU passports for $$ are on the rise:

4/ Numbers are deceptive as usual. Statistics on the Maltese passport scheme only count the "main applicant" but ignore "dependents" also getting a passport. With +800 dependents together with the +300 main applicants, in the past year alone 1100 passports were sold & issued:

5/ With a ratio of 1:3, we can roughly conclude that to date just under 4,000 EU passports were in fact issued to date (961 main + 3 dependents per applicant)

6/ While @MaltaGov pretends that the problem with rents skyrocketing is landlords, the report confirms the known fact that applicants prefer to rent (cheaper option / less permanent). That's 724 properties taken off the market and rented to ghost tenants at inflated prices.

7/ Let's look at the money since that is what this scheme is all about.

8/ To recap, an applicant for a Malta passport needs to:
(a) pay a "contribution" towards Joseph Muscat & co's illiberal war chest of €650,000 + a further €25,000 or €50,000 per dependent. With avg of 1:3 that's €725,000 per applicant.

9/ (b) Buy €150,000 worth of Gov bonds ie. lend money to Joseph Muscat & co at a cheap rate.

(c) Rent property for 5 years (or buy if money needs to be laundered) - ie feed the property bubble.

(d) Pay a bunch of fees to Identity Malta / Joseph Muscat & co

10/ (e) Take out insurance & pay donations to fishy charities and foundations such as Michelle Muscat's Marigold to establish "real links" to Malta.

(f) Naturally pay lawyers, Henley etc fees for organising the whole thing feeding the "immigration industry"

11/ The latest report includes updated figures for the above.

12/ Following the same order of "conditions" to get a passport (ie money paid):

A. Contributions - Joseph Muscat & co's illiberal war chest has so far collected a cool €600,000,000. Henley gets €30m for its troubles.

13/ When you divide that number by the average contribution (€725k) the number is 827 which is much less than the cited 961 acceptances. There's around €160m just floating around.

14/ B. Bonds - Total government bonds bought to date amount to €126,000,000. Basically @MaltaGov borrowed €126m on the cheap thanks to the scheme.

15/ C. Property - Between mandatory leases at high rates and luxury villas or apartments bought for speculation or hiding / laundering money, the scheme has pumped €180,000,000 into the Maltese property market. No wonder the skyline is littered with tower cranes.

16/ D. Fees - We dont get total fees collected in this report, just those in the last year - €5,500,000. That's €5.5m towards hiring cronies. With some quick maths we can arrive at a rough estimate of €17m in total just from processing fees alone.

17/ E. "Charities" - The report doesnt include this but @MaltaToday estimated this at €3.9m.

It's worth looking at the names of these charities too since certain operators use this as an excuse to milk the scheme further - eg Claris = Chetcuti Cauchi

maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/…

18/ F. Professional Fees - The report doesn't include this either. Taking a very conservative "all in" professional fee of €50,000 (they can go up to €100k) with the 827 above you'd be looking at around €40,000,000 paid to lawyers, accountants, Henley etc.

19/ Adding this together, the total figure is €966,900,000. Seeing as the numbers are unreliable - In 2015 - three years ago - Henley was boasting that a billion had been raised already, that number should probably be trebled.

timesofmalta.com/articles/view/…

20/ That is just the passport scheme.

Malta also operates parallel cash for residency schemes: maltaresidencevisaprogramme.com/concessionaire… operated by a Chinese company linked to Konrad Mizzi's wife, Nexia with a new name (Wahaat), Henley and ... wait for it

21/ A certain Laszlo Kiss (through his company Discus Holdings) targeting Turkey and Russia. Whatever could go wrong, right?

22/ So while @TheProgressives applaud @JosephMuscat_JM while he boasts about his economic model (all but the one sane person there, the indefatigable @AnaGomesMEP) know that Muscat is funding his illiberal antics by gambling with the EU's security & aiding EU money laundering.

.@JosephMuscat_JM's flagship propaganda outlet @ONE_news_Malta's video review of the ORIIP report is worth watching too.

Key take away: Malta "threw away" €250m by actually scrutinising applicants & any criticism of the scheme is only coming from "negative" nationalist MEPs.