Saint Kitts to Refund Sanctioned Applicants as PM Admits CBI Revenues Have Collapsed

Weeks after IMI became the first news outlet to call attention to Saint Kitts & Nevis’ withholding of funds from applicants who were approved but not awarded citizenship, the CIU confirms it has now initiated a refunding process for the affected applicants.

According to the Saint Kitts & Nevis Times, Prime Minister Terrance Drew confirmed, during a press conference yesterday, that the CIU has begun the process of refunding applicants from sanctioned countries who had initially received approvals but were later told they would not, after all, obtain citizenship.

One local service provider representing several affected Russian clients today confirmed to IMI that the CIU had contacted him to begin the refund process.

The sudden move, said the newspaper, came amid “mounting pressure, including the threat of a class-action lawsuit.”

The Saint Kitts & Nevis Times also said that, according to its (unnamed) sources within the CIU, the Financial Unit is “grappling with significant challenges, particularly in meeting payments to service providers due to a drastic reduction in new applicants.”

The sharp fall in applications is attributable to the country’s decision earlier this year to raise minimum investment and donation requirements, effectively making the program twice as expensive as its regional competitors.

The collapse in application volume, said the Saint Kitts & Nevis Times’ CIU-source, had already led to the closure of at least 11 service providers, “exacerbating unemployment and economic hardship in the country.”

Sources in both the CIu and the government itself admitted to the newspaper that if the trend persists, “the once-thriving program may face closure, plunging the nation into a severe financial crisis.”

During his press conference, Prime Minister Drew acknowledged that his administration had had to tap into reserve funds to maintain funding for social programs.

Last week, former Prime Minister Timothy Harris lambasted the current administration for its failure to publish statistics on the program’s performance. While the criticism is valid, Harris’ credibility on this point is questionable, considering he himself published no program statistics at all while in office.