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Eric Schmidt (65), a former director of Google and a native of the United States, bought the Cypriot passport for himself and his family. This is reported by the Cypriot magazine “Alithia”. Therefore, it makes use of a program that allows citizenship against payment.
Schmidt has yet to comment on the reasons for this step. With the new passport, you are entitled to easier entry requirements to the EU and possible tax advantages. For the application to be approved now, it would have to have been registered a good six months ago, at the beginning of the corona pandemic. The reason could be a plan B for the Corona period or a business decision.
Discredited program
According to “Recode”, the program to buy citizenship has contributed more than 7 billion francs to the state coffers. However, it is often used by Eastern oligarchs and has therefore come under increasing criticism in recent months. Therefore, the government has announced that it will end the program.
Similar offers also exist in other countries. With additional citizenships, billionaires can move abroad, as businesses often do. This allows you to save taxes. The foreign citizen has to buy a property worth millions and then can apply for “citizenship based on an investment”, as “Recode” writes.
On the Forbes list
Buying such a home is no problem for Schmidt, who according to Forbes, with a net worth of more than 12 billion Swiss francs, is ranked 84th on the list of the world’s richest people. In fact, he was CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011 and remains one of the largest shareholders.
