The 24-year-old began laundering money for an organized crime group shortly after obtaining EU citizenship through Malta’s controversial “golden visa” program, the documents show.
Semen Kuksov was jailed in February for five years and seven months after pleading guilty to laundering “more than £12 million (US$15 million) in ill-gotten gains,” Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement. statement in which he announced the sentence.
Both he and his father, Vladimir Anatolyevich Kuksov, appear on a list of people to be granted citizenship by Malta, a European Union country, in 2022. The senior Kuksov has no connection to his son’s criminal record.
Under Maltese law, passports can be revoked if an applicant is sentenced, within seven years of obtaining citizenship, to a prison term of one year or more.
The Maltese Community Agency, which oversees the citizenship programme, is looking into Semen Kuksov’s case, said director-general Joseph Mizzi, who also said his agency was “seriously considering asking the minister to initiate the process of revocation of citizenship”.
The Kuksovs were reportedly granted Maltese citizenship just weeks before Russians were barred from selling passports to wealthy investors following the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
In July 2022, approximately six months after receiving Maltese citizenship, Vladimir’s son and an accomplice began the criminal activity of money laundering.
Regarding the case against Semen, Vladimir Kuksov’s lawyers stated that he has “no comment to make, but mentions that he and his adult son have been living separate lives for several years.”
Semen Kuksov
Vladimir Kuksov chaired AKROS, one of the most important companies in the Russian oil services industry and a partner of several sanctioned companies, including Lukoil and Gazprom. He remains a majority shareholder through Visnoy Limited, a Cypriot company. Neither Kuksov nor AKROS were sanctioned.
Malta’s cash-for-passport scheme, launched in 2014, proved an instant success for the Russians. In its first year of operation, 54% of applications were submitted by Russians but Malta is now re-examining this program following the outbreak of the invasion.
Critics say the so-called “golden visa” programs have allowed easy access to the EU for “prominent organized crime figures, tax evaders” and other undesirables.
The European Commission said in a 2019 report that golden visas “raised concerns about certain inherent risks, in particular with regard to security, money laundering, tax evasion and corruption”.
In March 2023, the European Commission filed legal action against the Maltese government, arguing that granting citizenship for a “pre-determined payment” violates EU law.
In a 2022 statement, Malta said the citizenship program was legal and that applicants were subject to “robust vetting processes”.
The government said the process ensured that “only worthy individuals would acquire Maltese citizenship and, consequently, European citizenship”.
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Tags: Malta reconsider golden visa program son Russian oligarch convicted money laundering
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