NEWS DESK
\nPORTUGAL
\nMiguel Macedo was forced to resign as interior minister after the scandal broke in late 2014
\nA court in Portugal cleared most of the defendants in a corruption trial on Friday linked to a government scheme granting so-called \u201cgolden\u201d visas to wealthy foreigners, a case highlighting concerns over a controversial but widespread practice in Europe.
\nOut of 17 indictments for charges including corruption, money-laundering and influence-peddling, two people were given suspended sentences and two Chinese nationals were fined.
\nBut the most high-profile defendant — Miguel Macedo, who was forced to resign as interior minister from the previous centre-right government in November 2014 — was among those acquitted of bribery and influence-peddling charges.
\n\u201cThe acquittal is the logical result from the lack of evidence to support a baseless accusation,\u201d said his lawyer Alfredo Castanheira Neves.
\nThe Lisbon court also cleared former border police director Manuel Jarmela Palos, who was accused of running a network which profited from the granting of the residency permits to foreign investors.
\nCash-strapped Portugal in late 2012 began offering the \u201cgolden\u201d visas to wealthy foreigners willing to invest 500,000 euros ($570,000) in property, make a capital transfer of one million euros or create 10 jobs.
\nThe country handed out 6,800 such permits to investors and 11,600 more to their family members in exchange for 4.15 billion euros in investments, most of it in real estate.
\nChina was the country with the largest number of beneficiaries of the scheme followed by Brazil.
\nA number of European governments offer passports or residency rights in exchange for investments.
\nIn analysing the schemes in Cyprus, Malta and Portugal for a recent report, Transparency International and Global Witness noted \u201cthe ways in which insufficient due diligence, wide discretionary powers and conflicts of interest can open Europe\u2019s door to the corrupt\u201d.
\nOne of the most critical voices of the practice in Portugal, Socialist MEP Ana Gomes said she was \u201cdisappointed but not surprised\u201d by Friday\u2019s ruling and blamed the prosecutors office for making a weak case.
\n\u201cIt is a perverse scheme and a prostitution of citizenship which… fuels corruption by feeding a whole network of intermediaries,\u201d Portuguese Socialist MEP Ana Gomes told AFP.
\n\u201cIt is intolerable to hear some security discourses about migrants and refugees, and then to see that the discourse changes completely when it concerns wealthy foreigners,\u201d she added.
\nIn their report published last October, Transparency International and Global Witness said four EU countries — Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta — \u201csell\u201d passports to wealthy investors, while 12 offer them residency rights.
\nSpain tops the list of countries in terms of the number of visas issued and the amount of capital received — an average of 976 million euros annually.
\nIn total, European countries pulled in 25 billion euros from 6,000 new citizens and some 100,000 residents over the last 10 years, the report from the two NGOs said.
\n\u201cJust like a luxury good, European Union citizenship and residency rights can be bought,\u201d it said.
\n\u201cThere are many buyers, and there is no shortage of suppliers, which explains why investment migration is a growing, multi-billion-euro industry.\u201d
\nAs part of an effort to combat money-laundering, the European Commission is to present a report early this year on national schemes granting EU citizenship or residency to investors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEWS DESK PORTUGAL Miguel Macedo was forced to resign as interior minister after the scandal broke in late 2014 A court in Portugal cleared most of the defendants in a corruption trial on Friday linked to a government scheme granting so-called \u201cgolden\u201d visas to wealthy foreigners, a case highlighting concerns over a controversial but widespread […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n