Authorities in Malta are considering revoking the passport of Semen Kuksov, the 24-year-old son of Russian businessman Vladimir Anatolyevich Kuksov, who acquired it through Malta’s Golden Passport program.
Kuksov has been imprisoned in the UK after admitting to laundering over €14 million in cash together with an associate, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
He was jailed for more than five years and seven months in February after admitting to his role in laundering the cash.
Both the father and son Kuksov received Maltese citizenship back in 2022. The elder Kuskov hasn’t been connected to his son’s criminal case. Both were granted Maltese citizenship weeks before Malta suspended passport sales to wealthy nationals from Russia following the latter’s invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022.
Under the current laws in Malta, passports can only be revoked if applicants are sentenced within seven years of becoming citizens to a jail term of a year or longer.
The case of Semen Kuksov is being reviewed by the Community Malta Agency, which oversees the Golden Passport program, according to the CEO of Joseph Mizzi.
The agency is seriously considering offering to advise the Minister to initiate the process of deprivation of citizenship.
Regarding the case against Semen, Vladimir Kuksov’s lawyers said he had “no comment to make but notes that he and his adult son have lived separate lives for some years,” as reported by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
Attracting Foreign Investors
Malta’s Golden Passport scheme allowed wealthy foreigners to acquire citizenship in exchange for financial investment and meeting the needed conditions.
The scheme was introduced in 2014, and since then until the scheme was abolished there were a total of 833 investors and 2,109 family members who obtained Maltese citizenship.
Those who benefit from this scheme are also allowed to travel visa-free to other European countries after Malta is part of the borderless area of Schengen.
According to statistics from BBC, between mid-2017 and min-2018, the program brought a total of €162,375,000 equating to 1.38 per cent of Malta’s GDP in that period, in spite of the fact that back in 2018, there was a decrease in the purchase of passports.
The Golden Visa Program was an instant hit for nationals from Russia. During its first year of operation, a total of 54 per cent of applications were submitted by nationals of Russia.