"Criminal exploitation of citizenship and residency programmes is a multi-billion-dollar business to launder the proceeds of fraud and corruption, evade justice, or access third countries. Our joint FATF-OECD work identifies the risks and vulnerabilities around golden visa schemes and offers a series of important mitigation measures to help policy makers and programme operators include appropriate due diligence, transparency, and integrity mechanisms."
- Mathias Cormann, OECD Secretary General
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"Granting citizenship and residency to wealthy investors through 'golden' passport and visa programmes can potentially lead to economic growth. But they can and are being exploited by criminals and the corrupt, who want to launder their money hide their identity and assets, or carry out further crimes. This report calls on governments operating these programmes to implement a variety of safeguards to ensure these programmes are administered in a risk-sensitive way."
- T. Raja Kumar, FATF President
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