OREANDA-NEWS. The authorities of the Republic of Cyprus decided to double-check citizenship applications submitted before 2018. It was reported by the Greek newspaper To Thema Online with reference to the head of the Ministry of Interior Constantinos Petrides. According to him, three international companies will be involved in the audit: Sterling Diligence, Kroll and S-RM Intelligence and Risk. They will start work in December.

“An additional internal audit will be conducted in order to study the naturalization process until 2018, before applying more stringent criteria,” the minister said. The audit should reveal whether there are persons accused of crimes or subjected to European sanctions among those who have acquired citizenship of Cyprus.

On October 19, Petrides announced that there were already cases where passports of new citizens were revoked after inspections. The politician noted that not everyone who became a citizen of the republic before tightening the rules would be able to get a passport nowadays.

The program, under which the citizenship of Cyprus can be obtained for investments in the amount of 2 million euros, was launched in 2013. In the first five years since the introduction of the program, the government approved 1864 applications for citizenship. At the end of 2018, more than 3,200 people received citizenship of the country, taking into account family members.

In February 2019, state authorities tightened conditions, in particular, strengthened clearance check and introduced an additional contribution in the sum of 150 thousand euros. Before that, the European Commission warned in its January report that so called “golden passports” could help criminal groups infiltrate Europe and increase the risk of money laundering, corruption and tax evasion.