Henley & Partners have kept silent on Austria’s rejection of comparisons between its provisions for bestowing nationality and Malta’s cash-for-citizenship scheme.
The firm has made bold claims over the years on its websites and in the media about its capacity to enable people to acquire Austrian citizenship through investment.
But the Austrian Embassy in Malta categorically denied to this newspaper that Austria had ever operated a citizenship-by-investment programme.
Henley & Partners won a contract to devise, implement and administer much of Malta’s scheme, called the Individual Investor Programme (IIP).
The government and its supporters have consistently cited Austria in defence of the IIP, which grants outright Maltese citizenship in return for a €650,000 fee, an investment of €150,000 in government bonds and the purchase of property worth at least €350,000.
Henley’s CEO, Eric Major, has yet to respond to questions e-mailed to him on Tuesday on whether his firm had ever helped clients gain Austrian citizenship through investment.
He was also asked if the Maltese government’s repeated claims that Austria runs a citizenship-by-investment scheme were a fair reflection of the advice it had received from Henley.
Yesterday’s Times of Malta carried a thorough explanation of Austria’s legal provision for granting Austrian citizenship to people who perform “extraordinary services” to the benefit of the State. This provision – article 10, paragraph 6 of the Citizenship Act – has been in place since 1965, which is 30 years before Austria joined the EU.
It primarily applies to “scientists, researchers, athletes, recognised artists and cultural performers,” according to Erik Dreymann, consul of the Austrian Embassy in Malta.
Since summer 2011, the procedure has been under revision so no citizenships have been granted in this way for two-and-a-half years.
News agency Reuters reported that Henley & Partners’ Christian Kalin told a November 2011 conference in London that his clients had successfully obtained Austrian passports through investment.
In that same article, Mr Major also said it was possible to do this, although he admitted it was “fairly rare”. The Maltese government circulated a document to MEPs in Strasbourg last week that claimed Austria offered “immediate” citizenship in return for more than €3 million in direct investment.
The head of government communications said on Wednesday it was circulated “as part of our information campaign among MEPs and served as a factual document to counter misinformation fed in Brussels and Strasbourg”.
Despite this effort, MEPs overwhelmingly voted for a resolution that condemned the sale of EU citizenship and singled out Malta.
Repeated requests yesterday for the head of communications to clarify whether the government stood by its claim in light of Austria’s denial went unanswered.
Many supporters of the IIP took to online comment boards and social media yesterday to continue to insist Austria has its own citizenship-by-investment programme.
Among them was Labour MEP candidate Cyrus Engerer, who tweeted a link to Austria-citizenship.com. This is a site run by a private firm specialising in “international tax plannning [sic], real estate, residence and citizenship planning in Europe and Carribean [sic].”
The Austrian Embassy was incredulous when Times of Malta e-mailed it the link to this website. It claimed “questionable ‘business consultancies’” based outside Austria were disseminating “distorted and incorrect information”.
Meanwhile, there were media reports yesterday that former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has denied being interested in purchasing Maltese citizenship, despite leaks to the contrary earlier this week.