Apex Capital Partners Founder and President, Nuri Katz has said Dominica is leading the way in transparency as it relates to the Citizenship by Investment (CIB) Program. He stated that Dominica publishes the names of all who are beneficiaries of the program in the government gazette and Dominica is the only country in the word which requires fingerprints under the program.
“It’s very unique to Dominica,” he told DNO on Monday.
Dominica’s citizenship program has been placed under scrutiny on numerous occasions, most famously when it was revealed last year that former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, received Dominican citizenship while under investigation in Britain for alleged corruption while in office. Revelations also surfaced that “after due diligence,” the government agreed to the appointment of Alison-Madueke as “Trade and Investment Commissioner for Dominica, with the specific remit of promoting and marketing the trade and investment opportunities of Dominica.”
The government said it has “suspended all relations with Mrs. Madueke immediately following her arrest in October 2015, pending the outcome of the investigations.”
However, Katz said Dominica leads in transparency in the program.
“Dominica is leading the transparency issue because they did publish it in the government gazette…and in all honesty you hear the Prime Minister speaking about the program all the time,” he noted. He also noted that the CIB program’s intention is to make money for the government and the competition is fierce.
“There is huge competition around the world between different countries,” he said. “Dominica is competing with St Kitts and St Lucia and Grenada, Antigua, Malta and Cyprus and now Montenegro, Spain, Portugal…There are tens of agents in each country all trying to compete to bring clients to their favourite programs.” Katz stated that he want to make as much money as he can, because the more he makes, the more money goes into the government’s coffers.
“The more that I make, the more money goes into the government’s budget and this government really needs it,” he noted. “I don’t make money unless the government makes money and I think that an important thing to do. In all honesty, if I couldn’t make money, I would not promote this program and nobody would and the government would not get the money.” Apex Capital Partners has been assisting the government in its CBI program.