Need a new nationality? No problem! See here from the Guardian: The passport king who markets citizenship for cash Ever wonder what happened to the guy who ran Cambridge Analytica? No surprises in the answer. The ex-head of CA has already benefited from a boondoggle in the Caribbean where anyone can get a bonafide passport allowing them to set up and do business in the EU and elsewhere. Excerpt from the above piece: Want a new nationality? All you need is cash ...
....there was an Irish guy who did that in a pub just off in Kilburn High Road...passport/NI number...anything you needed...
I'm surprised the EU allows that to happen. Manufacturing ID's should be made illegal with a nice longggggg jail-sentence. And, of course, when anyone uses the passport, if they were registered on a a common EU-file, then they would be flagged. A passport from some Caribbean country can get anyone into a country. It is the setting up a business in that country as a born national that is the hard part. Unless, of course, one has a passport OF that country. Which should be registered and thus on file in a national data-base (in most countries that have such data-bases). How could a fake-passport be registered on-file in a national data-base? It can't. Can't understand how they set up businesses as country-nationals with fake-passports and even a fake birth-certificate. Of course, in the US, that would be easy because there is no National Identity Card given at birth or when one becomes a citizen ....
Its called identity theft....and apparently its not that difficult....?? it is....and you do....but if you're that way inclined then....
If it is, the law is certainly not sufficiently administered. A couple of long jail-sentences would evidently help. The EU will get around to this scandal. The Commission already has a "study team" assessing the problem. It is simply a matter of getting the EU-states to not recognize the passports of certain countries. Which is presently the case, since some EU-countries are allowing people to set up businesses using such passports. One that jumps to mind is ... uh ... Cyprus! Why do you think so many Russkies live there full-time and the flight from Nicosia to Moscow is a money-maker? It's only a question of time. The EU is going to come down on that country like a ton of bricks ...
Personally I think its more of a domestic thing as fighting crime and criminality is usually down to the individual country but I guess there is assistance from interpol and the like. We had non-reflective folk here selling illegal identities so that "students" could get in under student visas....and claim benefits...easy money.... I assume there are laws in every country making such activity illegal.....unless you're in Russia where anything goes...or Saudi embassies.....
The "identity" has a scope much larger than the country in which it is given. The EU-identity in any one country gives rights in all countries provided the matter is indeed covered by an EU-law. In which case, the wording is identical in all countries. It has an "EU" characteristic, and therefore EU-law pertains. That is, anyone residing in an EU country and having a company there that "works" in other EU countries is subject to the general law of the EU. If you are a Russian with an EU passport delivered in Cyprus, you can do business anywhere in the EU. (Don't believe that? See here.) The challenge thus becomes one for Berlaymont to devise a law acceptable and compatible to all EU-constituent countries. THAT is the hard part. But, what-the-hell, those working Berlaymont are damn-well paid. So, they need only get their collective-ashes together and start "thinking". Thinking and conceiving a law that spans all the EU countries fairly is the hard part. Writing it is the easy part ...
