A prospective buyer of a Maltese passport defended himself from accusations that he had lied intentionally about his wealth to qualify for the government’s individual investor programme.

The scheme allows wealthy foreigners to buy a Maltese passport for €650,000, along with a number of other investments.

The Chilean press alleged that the documents Alberto Chang-Rajii, wanted in Chile on fraud and money-laundering charges, submitted to the Maltese authorities were all stamped and notarised, except one page, where he had to estimate his net worth.

On that page, the media claim, Mr Chang-Rajii inserted the figure of $4 million on one application and $200 million on another.

The documents he submitted to the Maltese were all stamped and notarised, except one page, where he had to estimate his net worth

However, Mr Chang-Rajii told the Times of Malta the documents were “manipulated” by Santiago Ruiz, the comptroller of his company, Arcano Group.

Prosecutors in Chile accuse Mr Chang-Rajii of running a Ponzi scheme worth $80 million through the company that left investors high and dry.

He said that at the end of this month, Mr Ruiz would face prosecution by the Chilean authorities for collusion against the Arcano Group and him and for breaching several bank and securities laws.

Mr Chang-Rajii, who resides in a Sliema apartment, is resisting extradition to Chile and plans to institute legal action against Identity Malta, the entity responsible for administering the IIP scheme.

He said he had applied to become a Maltese citizen through the IIP scheme in March 2015 and was granted a residence permit by Identity Malta a year ago after passing through a due diligence process. Mr Chang-Rajii told this paper that Identity Malta had decided to revoke his residence permit shortly after charges were issued against him in Chile.

He said Identity Malta did not even contract him directly to revoke his permit. Instead, the citizenship scheme’s concessionaires, Henley & Partners, contacted him and asked him to return his identity card.

In an interview with this newspaper last May, Mr Chang-Rajii said that he intended to take legal action against Identity Malta.

Asked what had happened since, he said that his lawyer was exchanging legal documentation with Identity Malta.

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