The Council of Ministers during its meeting held on the 25.7.2019 (published in the Official Gazette on 23.8.2019) has decided that the Cypriot nationality cannot be granted, through the Cyprus Investment Programme, to persons who fall in the following categories of high-risk individuals:
- Politically Exposed Persons who hold government office and who have held government office in the last five years;
- Persons subject to criminal investigation irrespective of whether charges have been filed;
- Persons who are defendants in criminal proceedings;
- Persons sentences to imprisonment for serious offences such as public bribery, tax evasion, etc. and of which the penalty is time-barred;
- Persons affiliated with legal entities which have been restricted by the EU, such as shareholders or senior executives of companies which are included on the list of sanctions;
- Persons affiliated with legal entities to whom restrictive measures have been imposed by the EU, but are no longer linked, such as former senior executives of companies which are included on the list of sanctions, who were associated with said companies when the regime of sanctions was imposed. It is understood that, even if such person, at the time of the imposition of restrictive measures, had resigned, the application is rejected. Persons who resigned before enforcement of the restrictive measures, are excluded from this decision of the Council of Ministers;
- Persons subject to sanctions by third countries, for example USA, Ukraine, Russia;
- Persons related to legal entities subject to sanctions by third countries;
- Persons being investigated / indicted for criminal offenses and sought-after pan-European by EUROPOL or internationally by INTERPOL;
- Persons having been investigated / indicted for criminal offenses and sought-after pan-European by EUROPOL or internationally by INTERPOL and are no longer being sought-after;
- Persons subject to sanctions by the United Nations’ Security Council.