By Joanna Demarco
The Maltese citizenship of 25-year-old Russian national Semen Kuksov was officially revoked by the government after he was sentenced in the United Kingdom for running a “professional banking service for criminals across the world as part of a wider billion-euro money-laundering network”.
The citizenship deprivation process for Kuksov was initiated by the government following revelations by Times of Malta, OCCRP and Amphora Media journalists in 2024.
Published in the Government Gazette on Tuesday, the official announcement confirmed that Kuksov’s Maltese citizenship, which was acquired at the beginning of 2022 through Malta’s controversial cash-for-passports scheme, was revoked.
Kuksov was jailed in February 2024 for five years and seven months after pleading guilty to laundering “more than £12 million (US$15 million) of criminally obtained cash,” according to a statement that the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service published.
Details about Kuksov’s role in the network featured in an investigation codenamed Operation Destabilise. It uncovered a complex scheme in which the networks collect funds in one country and make the equivalent value available in another, often by swapping cryptocurrency for cash.
The crime agency stated that the investigation exposed and disrupted Russian money laundering networks that support crime worldwide.
As part of the network, Kuksov and an associate helped launder over €14 million during a 74-day period.
Kuksov had admitted to operating an underground cryptocurrency exchange.
Kuksov had appeared on the citizenship list with his father, Vladimir Anatolyevich Kuksov; however, the elder Kuksov has no connection to his son’s criminal case.
When the Community Malta Agency, which oversees the citizenship program, was questioned about the status of Kuksov’s citizenship following the revelations, reporters were informed that it was reviewing the case.
The agency is “seriously considering offering to advise the Minister to initiate the process of deprivation of citizenship,” CEO Joseph Mizzi had said in an email.
The Kuksovs appear to have been given Maltese citizenship just weeks before Russians were excluded from passport sales to wealthy investors in the wake of the Kremlin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Citizenship revocations have proved a challenge for the Maltese government, particularly among those who acquired their passport through the IIP program, or the golden passports scheme.
Before Kuksov, Pavel Melnikov was the only known citizenship buyer to have lost his Maltese passport. He was found guilty of aggravated tax fraud and aggravated accounting fraud in Finland earlier this year.
Evgeniya Vladimirovna Bernova, a Russian national named on a US sanctions list for allegedly enabling Russia’s intelligence services and helping it evade Western sanctions through the notorious Serniya network, remains a Maltese citizen nearly three years after the Home Affairs Ministry announced its intention to revoke her citizenship.
Malta eliminated its citizenship-by-investment program earlier this year following a damning judgement by the Court of Justice of the European Union, bringing an end to a long-winded saga.
Malta had tried to defend the scheme, claiming that it is being unfairly targeted despite similar schemes existing in other countries – a false claim. It has now expanded a discretionary citizenship scheme for individuals of ‘exceptional merit.
Amphora Media’s fact-check has shown that as of July 2024, less than 10% of the reported €1.4 billion generated from the scheme had been allocated to social projects, and that just €41,847,629, or one-third of the promised amount, had been paid out. It remains to be seen what will happen with the rest of the fund.
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