The Cabinet approved six proposals on Tuesday to revoke citizenship from 28 people who had been naturalised under the Cyprus Investment Programme, according to a government press release issued Friday.
The latest decisions add to 35 other decisions taken by the Christodoulides administration since taking office in March 2023. The 41 revocation decisions affect a total of 150 people – 41 investors and 109 family members.
Additionally, during the same period, the Cabinet decided to issue Deprivation of Citizenship Orders for 69 people whose initial decisions had been taken between 2021-2023. The revocation process has been completed for 15 people – five investors and 10 family members.
360 citizenships revoked since programme ended
Since the Cyprus Investment Programme ended in 2021, citizenship revocation has been decided for a total of 360 people, corresponding to 101 investors and 259 dependent family members. For 112 of the 360 people, the process has been completed and their documents cancelled.
The Cyprus Investment Programme operated from around 2013 to 2020, allowing wealthy individuals to obtain Cyprus (and therefore EU) citizenship in exchange for significant investments in the country, typically around €2 million in real estate or other qualifying investments.
The programme faced increasing scrutiny from the European Commission and international media, particularly regarding due diligence procedures and concerns about money laundering.
It was suspended in late 2020 following an Al Jazeera investigation that exposed the former House Speaker Demetris Syllouris and ex-AKEL MP Christakis Giovanis allegedly colluding to arrange a golden passport for a purported Chinese investor.