Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1365202
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 APRIL 2021 THE PASSPORT PAPERS Nicole Meilak for MaltaToday & Albert Galea for The Malta Independent RECEIPTS for Pastizzi from Ra- bat's famous Crystal Palace Bar and for a Red Bull from a night- club in Paceville were amongst the so-called "genuine links" presented by IIP candidates in order to prove the ties they had developed to Malta as they sought to get their hands on a passport. Applicants for the Individual Investor Programm – Malta's €1.15 million cash-for-passports scheme for the global rich – al- lowed them to spend just an av- erage of 16 days in Malta out of their supposed 12-month resi- dency period. The system was put in place by Henley & Part- ners, the IIP's 'concessionaire' and the government agency Identity Malta, which effectively reduced the residency process to a box-ticking and score-granting exercise, documents revealed in the Passport Papers show. A scoreboard was drawn up through which authorities could determine whether an applicant had established what they called "genuine links" to the island – with different things, such as the purchase or rent of property, the purchase or renting of a vehi- cle, a donation to a local charity, membership in a local club or organisation, the creation of a bank account, were given differ- ent point scores. An applicant then had to aim to overtake a certain threshold score. Henley & Partners would ad- vise their clients as to how they could reach the score, especial- ly if they have spent not near- ly enough time in Malta (days spent in the country granted one points as well). Identity Malta however advised Henley not to simply stick to the minimum. "Please advise your clients to avoid going by the ab- solute bare minimum initiatives as this could give rise to difficul- ties if seen by the regulator," an Identity Malta official told Hen- ley & Partners in August 2015. A month later, another official advised "to stop looking at the barest minimum" when a Henley client representative asked for help on how many genuine links were needed to satisfy the reg- ulator given that her client had not spent a lot of time in Malta. It is perhaps this desire by Iden- tity Malta to see comprehensive evidence of these so-called links to Malta that led to some can- didates providing anything and everything in an effort to prove their ties to Malta. The most common "genuine links" presented by applicants are without doubt flight tickets – be they airlines or by private jet – and hotel bookings. Most applicants stayed in high-end hotels such as the Westin Drag- onara, the Intercontinental, and the Excelsior – rather than in the property that they were renting on the island during their resi- dency period. The Malta Independent and MaltaToday have already ex- posed how many applicants would rent a lacklustre property at the barest minimum of prices in order to satisfy the residency requirement, and then not spend a single day living in it. A number of applicants then donated between €5,000 and €10,000 to different local char- ities – with Puttinu Cares, Dar tal-Providenza, and the Malta Community Chest Fund proving to be the most popular – having been recommended to clients by Henley in the first place. Some also took out member- ship at gyms – normally the gym of the hotel that they would be staying it – while others became members of an organisation such as Marsa Sports Club or the Malta Society of Arts. This is where the links start to get tenuous at best: a number of clients took to scanning and sending every single receipt of their stay in Malta. Amongst documents seen by this newsroom in clients' gen- uine links folders, one can find receipts from restaurants or ca- fes, from supermarkets, museum tickets, and receipts for taxis as well. Receipts for expensive pur- chases were also included. One applicant spent €6,000 at Ster- ling Jewellers, while another spent €4,000 at the same shop. Someone else spent €800 at the Loft interiors shop, while an- other applicant spent €1,761 at a restaurant in Pietà – €1,550 of which was on two bottles of wine. One particular applicant sent in a 37-page document of re- ceipts for things ranging from purchases from the duty free at Rome's Fiumicino airport, to museum tickets, to receipts for a toothpaste purchase and even a receipt for an ice-cream. Another applicant arranged a host of bus tickets onto a piece of paper and scanned them to include in her pack of evidence, Pastizzi from Serkin: 'genuine links' As Maltese as it can get: receipts from a night out at Havana Bar, the Crystal Palace 'Serkin' bar for pastizzi, Eden Cinema tickets, bus tickets, and even a police contravention for parking on a single yellow line... Rather than opting for those few high- value links, most applicants bought their way through low-value options to prove genuineness, such as a parking ticket or even an unsuccessful bank withdrawal, a cinema ticket... or a Serkin pastizz and a Friday night drink at Havana