Tweet

 

 

 

by LK Hewlett  for the St.Kitts-Nevis Observer Newspaper, 

 

Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has admitted that a number of Iranian nationals were issued St. Kitts-Nevis passports in January of this year.

On Tuesday (June 17) PM Douglas said an Iranian national and his family were issued passports in January but this was not in violation of the government’s own July 2013 advisory against processing Iranians through the Citizenship By Investment program.

“The passport that was referenced in the [FinCEN] advisory was a passport issued to a citizen who had obtained citizenship since 2012, that is, before the St. Kitts-Nevis advisory of July 2013 of not processing Iranians into our program any longer,” he said.

According to the Prime Minister, the government realized this and pointed it out to the US Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). This came after the May 20 FinCEN advisory to financial institutions about “illicit actors” who were using passports purchased through the St. Kitts and Nevis CIB program to disguise their identities to evade US sanctions.

The FinCEN advisory also said that despite the SKN government’s banning of Iranians from the CBI program last year, the agency “believes that Iranian nationals continue to obtain passports issued through the program” with relative ease.

Dr. Douglas denied this the next day, saying it was a misunderstanding on the part of the US government. He explained then that there were in fact a number of Iranians who received citizenship after the local advisory, however their applications were already being processed through the system when the sanction was imposed.

The individual whose passport was issued in January, PM Douglas said, had passed the program’s due diligence check.

“We now know and we have pointed out to the authorities that this Iranian person firstly had a very clean due diligence report and secondly, had been a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis since 2012, but only obtained his passport, he and his family, in January of this year, in other words there was no processing of any new applicant after our advisory of July 2013.”

Another issue raised regarding abuse of the SKN CIB program was that of three Iranians who, using SKN passports, engaged in illicit economic activity within the US. These men, or at least one of them, were listed on a US watch list and are the subjects of a US Treasury Department investigation for links to terrorism and evading economic sanctions.

Dr. Douglas says however that at the time these Iranians were issued SKN citizenship, their names weren’t any US watch lists.

“There was reference to some persons who were on a particular list that is published by the US Government. That list, when those persons had obtained their citizenship, they were never anywhere on the appropriate lists. Their due diligence were clean. They only got on the list after they had become citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis.”

He emphasized that all these “mis-references” have been clarified with the necessary US authorities.

“Again I emphasize that we do not in our program process persons who have been named either on any national list of persons who are violating security sanctions, sanctions at the national level, at the international level, or at the level of the United Nations,” the PM said.

The FinCEN advisory has however, prompted changes in the SKN CBI program, according to Dr. Douglas, who assured his government is taking the advisory very seriously.

“We have made a number of public statements; we have done a number of things. We have engaged the authorities at various levels- the authorities at the [US] Treasury Department. We’ve engaged the US government as well at various levels. We’ve had consultations with the bankers locally and in the region…with our service providers, and our developers who are all stakeholders operating within the Citizenship By Investment program.

“We have ensured that the areas that were identified in the FinCEN advisory, that those areas that needed to be clarified, they have been clarified.”

The local government will continue to work with foreign agencies and governments to police the CBI program against abuse, PM Douglas averred.

“There are specific things that we have to do to insulate our program from being misused and abused in the way that the advisory has indicated.

“The government continues to say it is willing to work with any entity or government to ensure that our program maintains its highest standards, continues to lead globally as the Citizenship By Investment program that has been so successful and which has attracted so much support… We will continue to work with the authorities to ensure that any issue with our particular program is corrected.”

He also pledged that “very shortly” the government is going to announce a “comprehensive program of review and overhaul” of the CBI program. He said this overhaul is “absolutely necessary” to rebrand the program in order to maintain the highest levels of standards and its integrity and sustainability for the future.