The government has stepped up efforts to revoke citizenships granted under the Cyprus investment scheme, with new cases identified this week.

At a meeting on Wednesday, the cabinet approved the withdrawal of Cypriot nationality from seven investors and 19 of their family members. The decision followed a proposal by Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou, who is preparing another list of names for further review.

Figures show that since President Nikos Christodoulides took office on March 1, 2023, a total of 35 decisions have been made to strip citizenship from 35 investors and 87 relatives.

In total, 122 passports have been cancelled during this period.

Broader figures reveal that, so far, 332 “golden” passports have been revoked.

These belong to 95 investors and 237 family members. Of these, 112 cases, including 33 investors and 79 relatives, have been completed with formal deprivation orders.

Their identity cards and passports have already been cancelled.

Almost all of those whose passports have been withdrawn were previously classified as high risk by the Nicolatos inquiry, which examined the controversial citizenship by investment programme.

The Nicolatos inquiry refers to a 2020 independent investigation, led by former Supreme Court judge Myron Nicolatos, into the country’s controversial citizenship-by-investment or “golden passport” programme.

The inquiry found that a majority of the passports issued were unlawful.

Many affected investors were found to have faced criminal charges in their home countries, were wanted by police, or had convictions for serious crimes. Others did not meet the legal requirement of being of “good character”.

According to a report in Politis, some investors claimed they could not travel to Cyprus to sign naturalisation papers, with lawyers giving false explanations.

In reality, several were in detention abroad. A number were convicted of serious crimes, serving lengthy prison terms and appearing on international wanted lists.

Other investors were under investigation or awaiting trial for offences such as corruption, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, money laundering, and participation in organised crime.

Some failed to complete or maintain the properties tied to their applications. In other cases, they sold the properties and left Cyprus after obtaining citizenship.