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22 September 2008
Scam Busters: Second Citizenship and Passport
You need a second passport? Internet has a plenty of inviting information. Too
many offers that are too good to be true. You need a cheaper passport, but definitely
have no intention to loose your money being conned. How to spot the scammers?
The only official economic citizenship programs in existence are those of Dominica,
St.Kitts & Nevis and Austria. The cheapest one will cost you somewhere close
to US$ 100,000. There are also countries that do support a kind of economic
citizenship programs, quite formal and legal, but they don't speak loud about
this sensitive issue wishing to avoid disapproval by the world's community.
Such silence creates a mystery giving the ground to innumerable scams and making
it very difficult to find a real promoting agency. Below are some advices to
those seeking on their own.
So you found a website promoting second citizenship and passport programs in
one or several countries. Start with analysis of the offer itself and have in
mind that at least:
- There are no "instant" passport programs taking 1-15 days. Any
country is supposed to thoroughly vet your application and facts from your
past, which takes at least a month, and happens quicker in lucky cases.
- There are no too cheap options. More or less real prices start with US$
30,000 and that will be a citizenship of one of the Central or South American
countries for that price.
- You can hardly find a real program with "no need to travel". The
only exception known to me is St.Kitts & Nevis program, but the absence
of such requirement is being compensated by very strict verification and due
diligence procedures. There's an option in Dominica citizenship program to
arrange a personal interview in the country of your residence for an extra
fee. I don't know other reliable programs with no need to visit the country
in person at least once.
- There are no programs granting "passports to everyone no matter of
your current nationality or citizenship; just pay money and you get it".
Your current citizenship's country may fall into lists of countries where
it's impossible to check your background, so your application can be rejected.
If everything sounds nice, go further:
Google the company's name including its domain name and any specific names
appearing on the website to see if there are any negative comments left on their
service by their former clients. Absence of bad information is a good sign but
far not a proof.
Check the website's history at http://web.archive.com
if any. If the website is freshly baked, or has no history at all, be careful.
Earlier versions of the website may help you to recognize the hidden agendas.
However, you should have in mind that some scam websites are still able to
exist long enough and have stable history and background. A simple reason is
that not every victim is willing and able to tell the world that he or she got
scammed, and this is indeed so stupid sometimes. Besides, the scammers' gains
in each particular case are not substantial to develop into an international
scandal or involve Interpol into investigation. The hiding scammer is difficult
to find and punish. The scam site is alive and thriving.
Phone the company to speak in live. In most cases you even don't get through
or reach their voicemail.
Contact them by email with interest about a specific program. In most cases
you will be requested to pay first, which is actually quite a normal practice
among second citizenship promoting agents both real and fraudulent. With invoice
you get more information to examine and possibly find a trace on the Internet.
Some frauds are not smart enough, or sometimes simply not able, to create a
new underlying legal entity with a new bank account. It might happen you'll
find interesting facts about that company's past performances.
Still looks good and reliable? Ask for legal basis details, other than just
"by means of naturalization if you fit the criteria". What are the
criteria?
Some frauds will furnish you with a legally looking document, which is sometimes
worse than not giving anything. You risk to get a passport of a defunct person
with just replaced photos in it, or a passport printed on a canceled blank subject
to be destroyed, or the one simply stolen. No need to tell about inescapable
problems at the first border you try to cross with that passport.
Those "criteria" are a very sensitive part of the process and only
a local licensed legal firm in the country where you want your second citizenship
is able to handle it within the letter of the law.
The climactic moment is payment of money. After you did it you may never hear
from those people again.
The best recommended way to arrange the deal is to take a vacation, travel
to the country, meet those people in person, have a lawyer to go with you everywhere,
see the immigration offices and the whole application process with your own
eyes. Even so, unlike with those official economic citizenship programs, there's
no guarantee that the passport will not get withdrawn in future, but at least
you reduce risks to a possible minimum. You don't do this often, probably once
upon a life. You can afford such travel. You better do.
05 September 2008
Offshore Banking: Failure to Open a Bank Account
You decided to join the club and enjoy the benefits of offshore banking. You incorporated an offshore company as recommended by your advisor, chose a sound and reliable bank, prepared the requested documents and submitted your application, but unexpectedly the bank didn't approve it and denied to open you an account. Why would a bank that spent so much time, money and efforts to attract more customers reject some applications?
Unfortunately any bank has the right to refuse with no comments. Let's see what could be the reasons.
Generally, this might obviously happen because the bank is not interested in you as a client. You don't fit the current appetite of the bank. You are expected to become a new investor while you are looking for a current trading account for your business; or the bank is oriented to clients with a significantly bigger account turnover than you anticipate.
Another problem is that the bank may be afraid of having you as a client because you fall into the category of undesirable customers. None of the well-established banks with good international reputation would ever wish to provide service to a criminal. Every bank has its own perception of troublesome business and relevant technical procedures assisting its managers to detect potentially unreliable clients. It might happen that the country of your citizenship, residence or domicile, jurisdiction of incorporation of your company or type of your business are black-listed by that bank.
Some clients fail to provide the bank with the right image of their business in general. You may simply be inaccurate and make a typo here and there, in the telephone number or address details, and that's it, you look suspect to the bank's compliance manager. Sometimes the reason lies deeper. You overdo trying to keep your privacy. You tend to tell the bank as less as possible. The result is the bank doesn't get a sufficient picture to be sure no problems will follow you. Most banks prefer to brush aside any suspicious client rather than engage in investigation because in case of mistake they might easily get more troubles than benefits. To avoid this situation do your best to make your business reality transparent enough for the bank to make a positive decision.
All these and other issues of that type can normally be avoided should you have a quality preliminary consultation with a professional independent advisor.
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