In all, Forbes found that five billionaires, collectively worth more than $35 billion, applied to the program over the two year span, according to the Al Jazeera documents. So did Oleg Tinkov, founder of Tinkoff Bank (worth an estimated $2.7 billion), Vadim Moshkovich ($2.1 billion), Zhang Keqiang ($1.6 billion) and Taha Mikati ($2.3 billion) also applied. Former billionaires Oleg Bakhmatyuk and Alexei and Dmitry Ananyev were other applicants, according to the leaked documents. According to a report in The Guardian, the scheme has generated over $8 billion for Cyprus since 2013. “Cyprus citizenship grants applicants and their families the freedom to live, work or study in any of the 28 European member states with unrestricted visa-free access to over 173 countries worldwide,” the Astons site reads.

Source: Forbes October 15, 2020 12:00 UTC