Brexit for the many, EU rights and citizenship for the billionaire few who pushed for brexit?
“Cyprus government documents seen by Reuters show that Conservative Party donors have sought citizenship of the island, an EU member state, since Britain voted to leave the bloc in 2016.
They include billionaire Alan Howard, one of Britain's best-known hedge fund managers, and Jeremy Isaacs, the former head of Lehman Brothers for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Cyprus' interior ministry recommended that both men's applications be approved, the government documents show.
Cypriot citizenship costs a minimum of 2 million euros of which at least 500,000 euros must be permanently invested. At no point in the application process is the applicant compelled to live in – or even visit – Cyprus. Cyprus is popular with people seeking a second passport because the entire investment can be in real estate, and it has low taxes.
The Cyprus government documents reviewed by Reuters also list a man named David John Rowland as having sought citizenship. The documents that name Rowland contain scant details, showing only that he applied for a Cypriot passport as part of an investor group. Separate Cypriot company records list a UK national David John Rowland as a director of a company called Abledge Ltd, which was registered on Dec. 31, 2015.
These records show Rowland's home address to be on the British tax haven island of Guernsey - the home of the David John Rowland who is a Conservative Party donor, former Party treasurer, property developer and financial adviser to Prince Andrew. Reuters couldn't determine Abledge Ltd's line of business or any other information about the firm.
A spokesperson for a bank owned by Rowland, Banque Havilland, declined to comment. Repeated requests through another of Rowland's businesses and his personal email address went unanswered. A spokesperson for the palace declined to comment. The Cypriot government declined to comment about any of the individuals named in this story or on the status of a government review of its passports-for-sale scheme, citing EU privacy rules.
Electoral Commission records show that Rowland has donated at least £6.5 million to the Conservatives since 2001, £854,500 of it since the Brexit vote. Prime Minister David Cameron named him Tory treasurer and chief Conservative fundraiser after the millions of pounds he donated to the 2010 general election campaign - to protect Britain's "liberty" and economic future, Rowland told media at the time. He quit before officially taking up the post.”
mobile.reuters.com/article