Investigations into the heavily criticised and now defunct citizenship-by-investment programme, also known as the golden passport scheme, remain difficult, as authorities struggle with complicated case files and limited cooperation from abroad, officials told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) on Saturday.

“These are complex cases, including a large number of documents and other material,” police spokesperson Kyriaki Lambrianidou said, adding that many cases required the collection of data from multiple investors with up to 30 involved in a single case.

Additionally, Lambrianidou said that in most cases, legal assistance and information from third countries, was needed. This, she said, concerned mainly Asian countries, where a significant portion of the investors in question were located.

“The authorities of these countries do not respond to the police’s requests, resulting in delays of up to four years,” Lambrianidou said.

She assured the public that efforts were underway to accelerate procedures by sending reminders, however obstacles remained.

“The complexity of the files requires specialisation and continuous legal support,” she said.

Lambrianidou explained that the team responsible for the investigation of the cases included five seasoned investigators from the criminal-combatting unit, who were closely overseen and worked in cooperation with the legal service.

Four cases brought before courts

According to the CNA, a total of 195 golden passport related cases have been reported to the police since 2021, however, Lambrianidou pointed out that the number of individuals and companies involved was much higher.

“Out of the total of 195 cases, 28 have been investigated and forwarded to the legal service [which] gave instructions for their archiving, as no criminal offence was found,” Lambrianidou said.

Another four cases were brought before the courts, with one of them, registered in 2021, concerning eight defendants, including a lawyer, his law firm and companies providing administrative services.

The case had initially been dismissed before court, however after an appeal was filed by the attorney-general in 2025 and retrial was ordered.

26 cases registered against natural and legal persons

The legal service, speaking to the CNA, said that so far, cases have been registered against a total of 26 natural and legal persons, accused of committing criminal offences in connection with the investment scheme.

The service stressed that the progress of the investigations was being “closely monitored” and that it held regular meetings with the police to provide legal support and give instructions for the management of the cases.

“The legal service sent all the relevant findings of the Nikolatos committee, the Kalogiros committee, as well as the reports of the audit service to the head of police, giving instructions for a criminal investigation of possible offences,” legal service said, referring to reports from the committees set up to look into the details of the citizenship scheme concerning the years from 2007 to 2020.

Former chairwoman of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySec) Demetra Kalogirou, highlighted both the institutional inadequacies and the serious consequences of the scheme to CNA.

Referring to the findings of the ad hoc committee she chaired, which was responsible for investigating the naturalisation scheme, and to the findings of the Nikolatos committee in 2021, she said that these demonstrated the extent and depth of the irregularities.

Kalogirou emphasised that more than half of the naturalisations in question, 53 per cent – of a total of 6,700 people – concerned people who were naturalised outside the legal framework, mainly relatives of investors including spouses and children.

“The rest were indeed investors, but about 10 per cent of them were considered high-risk, with a history that sometimes included criminal offences, convictions or international wanted persons.”

She added that following the findings of the committee, some of these naturalisations had been revoked.

Kalogirou described the programme as a “necessary intervention” after the 2013 bail-in, when banks were unable to fund the economy.

“The problem was not the programme, but the complete lack of supervision.”

306 people deprived of Cypriot citizenship

According to data released by the interior ministry covering the period from March 2023 to date, the total number of persons deprived of the Cypriot citizenship during the period in question amounted to 96, with the deprivation process having been completed for five investors and 10 of their family members.

Meanwhile, the Council of Ministers issued a citizenship revocation decree for another 69 persons, 17 investors and 52 family members, for whom the initial decision had been taken between 2021 and 2023.

In total, the Council of Ministers ruled to revoke 306 persons, namely 88 investors and 218 family members, of their Cypriot citizenship.

Of these, the process has been completed for 112 persons, 33 investors and 79 family members and their passports and identity cards have been cancelled.

The golden passport scheme had been introduced in 2007 and was eventually abolished in November 2020, after Cyprus found itself at the centre of an international scandal, following an Al Jazeera’s investigation into the programme.

The programme allowed for the granting of Cypriot citizenship to third-country nationals who invested at least two million euros in real estate, businesses or government bonds.

The Nikolatos and Kalogiros committees found that many naturalisations did not comply with the criteria, often due to incomplete and inadequately controlled processes, with new citizens often not meeting the required criteria.

Among the court cases currently being tried is one linked to the former House president Demetris Syllouris. Another involves a former transport minister Marios Demetriades.