SINGAPORE - It is called a “golden passport”, and it is legal to have one.

Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel and libertarian venture capitalist Peter Thiel have one.

But the perks and privileges that go with it – and the ease of getting one – have given many bad actors a convenient way to hide their loot, launder dirty money or skip jail time.

Jho Low, the Malaysian financier who is now one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, has several, according to reports.

Low was issued an investment-based citizenship passport from Saint Kitts and Nevis, a tiny Caribbean island nation, in 2011. His citizenship there was revoked in 2018 following full-scale international investigations into the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.

He is believed to hold a Maltese passport as well, and in 2015, obtained a Cypriot passport.

Several of the suspects in a massive money-laundering scam uncovered in Singapore this week hold multiple passports, investigations showed.

Though the nine men and one woman, aged between 31 and 44, arrested on Tuesday are originally from Fujian province in China, they hold multiple passports issued by Vanuatu, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Cyprus, Turkey and Cambodia.

A golden passport is one granted by a country in exchange for a big investment or a donation.

Each year, about 50,000 people get a second citizenship via this route, according to Dr Kristin Surak, an assistant professor at the London School of Economics and author of the book The Golden Passport: Global Mobility For Millionaires.

The number excludes those getting long-term residency instead of citizenship.

Investment Migration Insider, a migration-focused magazine, values the golden passport industry at roughly US$21.4 billion (S$29 billion).

By 2025, it will generate US$100 billion in revenues for nations benefiting from it.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), over 100 countries offer some variation of citizenship-for-investment/donation programmes.

Most have robust mechanisms in place to prevent abuse.

Canada, for instance, grants citizenship in exchange for C$1.2 million (S$1.2 million) worth of investment or a C$350,000 donation. But those applying for one will have to wait five years before they can get their passport, during which time they have to be a resident of Canada.

Germany has a lower investment threshold – €350,000 (S$516,000) – but the waiting period for a passport is longer: eight years.

Those seeking an American passport, meanwhile, will have to place no less than US$900,000 (S$1.2 million) in a US company, and must be a US resident for at least five years.

Crowd favourites

But the OECD has flagged at least 14 nations that it says have citizenship and residency schemes that “potentially pose a high-risk to the integrity” of a global treaty that seeks to crack down on tax evasion, as well as money laundering.

Most are Caribbean island states: Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia.

Vanuatu in the South Pacific, the British overseas territories of the Turks and Caico, and the Seychelles in East Africa are also in the list.

There are also larger nations that were flagged: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Cyprus and Malta.

These countries are on the OECD list because of how quick and easy it is to secure citizenship or long-term residency from them.

It takes only three to four months and a donation of as little as US$100,000 to get a passport in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and Saint Lucia.

That has made these nations crowd favourites among those fleeing prosecution or persecution in their native countries, or seeking a safe place to park gains from criminal enterprises that they can access when things head south for them.

A passport issued by Cyprus, a member of the European Union, used to be a coveted one because it grants its holder the right to live and work in all 27 EU states and visa-free access to over 170 countries.

But a damning Al Jazeera report in 2020 forced Cyprus to shutter its investment-for-citizenship programme after it was revealed that, out of over 2,500 people who got a Cypriot passport from 2017 to 2019, dozens faced criminal charges in another country, had a prior conviction or were under international sanctions.

Among them was Low, who is now on the “most wanted” lists of three countries.

Others in this rogues’ gallery are Mykola Zlochevsky, a Ukrainian energy tycoon and former minister wanted by Kyiv for corruption; and Russian banking brothers Dmitry and Alexei Ananiev, who are accused in Russia of embezzlement and money laundering, and are also under sanctions from Ukraine.

It is not just Cyprus.

Mehul Choksi, an Indian diamond merchant sought by Interpol, acquired citizenship in Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 shortly before he was charged with bank fraud.

Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and convicted in absentia of graft, now has a passport from Montenegro.

Bottling lightning

Interpol, anti-money laundering regulators and governments have been pressing for tighter reins or an outright ban on the issuance of golden passports.

They have had some success.

Bulgaria has ended its investor citizenship scheme, while Ireland and Portugal have announced that they are scrapping their own popular golden visa programmes.

Canada has revoked visa-free travel for Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. In July, Britain struck Vanuatu off its visa-free list.

But it is like catching lightning in a bottle.

The small Caribbean nations on the OECD’s watchlist, for instance, rely on citizenship-for-investment programmes to prop up their economies.

Saint Kitts and Nevis derives 40 per cent of its gross domestic product from these programmes, Dr Surak of the London School of Economics said in her book.

Cracking down on golden passports may also feel like playing a game of whack-a-mole. Cyprus may be closed for business, for instance, but there are others filling the gap.

Malta, another EU member state, has taken Cyprus’ place in the pecking order of best places to get a second citizenship, despite its steeper price of entry: at least €1.2 million.

The European Commission has brought a case against Malta before the EU’s Court of Justice, but even if that case moves forward, other nations such as Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria are just waiting in the wings.

Mr Michael Kosnitzky, a lawyer at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman who has helped many of his high-net-worth clients obtain second, and even third, citizenships, told the online news site Vox that “Turkey is hot right now”.

With an investment requirement of just US$400,000, no minimum stay and a waiting time of three to six months, many of Russia’s wealthiest have been scooping up Turkish passports, which grants visa-free travel to 110 destinations, as a hedge just in case the domestic situation in Russia falls apart.

“There is really little incentive for nations to drop their CBI (citizenship-by-investment) programmes and a very low bar to hurdle for those taking advantage of these programmes,” said Ms Teresa Villareal, a lawyer who handles immigration cases in the Philippines.

She said unless powerful blocs like the EU can come up with a wholesale ban, “any hard-charging action will plug one hole only to open up two more holes”.