A Moldovan opposition party, Partidul Acțiune și Solidaritate (Party of Action and Solidarity) has raised the alarm bell over the deal the Moldovan government signed this week for a “turnkey” citizenship sales, foreign direct investment and infrastructure deal with a consortium, including Henley & Partners, the concessionaires of Malta’s controversial Individual Investor Programme.
PAS has underscored the fact that journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had featured the company in many of her investigations. Caruana Galizia was also the subject of a Maltese-government approved SLAPP lawsuit, as she had reported on the company in the months leading up to her assassination.
The Moldovan party said: "In her investigations, Caruana Galizia mentioned that the Maltese citizenship programme was based on bribery, embezzlement, and the company managing the programme is the same Henley & Partners.
“Caruana Galizia wrote in her investigations that Henley & Partners had extremely close ties with the ruling party in Malta, and that the company was about to sue Caruana Galizia.
“What do you want to turn Moldova into, gentlemen? Into a paradise of offenders?" the PAS party wrote in a public statement.
The Moldovan government announced this week that it had struck a deal with the country, which is looking to attract €1.3 billion in citizenship sales over the coming five years.
A contract between the Moldovan government and a ‘turnkey’ consortium was signed in Chisinau on Wednesday.
The Moldovan programme will be promoted by an international consortium, which includes Henley & Partners, and which the Moldovan government says was selected by public tender.
Henley & Partners applied at the end of May for the Moldovan mandate as part of a consortium together with MIC Holding LLC (Moldovan Investment Company, or MIC), a company based in Dubai and founded to focus on strategic FDI initiatives, including the MCBI programme, real estate and infrastructure development, and country branding and positioning. In addition, an agreement has also been signed with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a leading global management consulting firm with 90 offices in 50 countries.
The consortium, which differs from the all-inclusive set-up Henley & Partners has in Malta, will provide citizenships and “government advisory” from Henley real estate and infrastructure programmes will be handled by MIC while BCG will consult the consortium on “best-in-class FDI strategy and implementation”.
In a press release, the Moldovan Economics and Infrastructure Ministry said that Moldova’s citizenship through investments would be provided only to applicants who meet “the best international standards”.