Rival bidder for lucrative citizenship programme files civil case

Financial advisors Arton Capital Inc have instigated civil proceedings calling for the nullification of the expressions of interest and adjudication that picked Henley & Partners as the exclusive concessionaire for the Individual Investor Programme.

The IIP will sell Maltese citizenship to applicants for €650,000 after Henley conducts due diligence and recommends applicants to the government agency Identity Malta.

The writ was signed by lawyer Therese Commodini Cachia, a Nationalist candidate for the forthcoming European elections.

Arton Capital had originally appealed a decision by the ministry for home affairs and national security to pick Henley. But the decision was confirmed by a board of appeal chaired by Malta Industrial Parks deputy chairman Joshua Zammit, Reno Borg (nominated by the Labour Party as a member on the Broadcasting Authority), and Adrian Said.

Arton Capital was represented in the tender by counsel Tanya Camilleri, of FZD Advocates, whose senior partner is Nationalist MP Francis Zammit Dimech.

Arton has claimed that Henley was already associated with the former administration, in giving consultation to the government on a similar scheme or a permanent residence programme. Arton's chief executive officer Armand Arton also claimed that Henley's CEO Eric Major was aware of Arton's participation in the call for expressions, alleging a "special relationship between Major and the government of Malta."

But Major had told the appeals board that Henley had never been involved in advising the government on citizenship-by-investment, and instead involved in the Maltese residence schemes of the last 10 years.

Arton is claiming the international call for expressions of interest and the adjudication of bids for the drafting of the IIP breached public service commission procedures, was ultra vires, abusive and against the law.

The civil  procedures were filed against Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia, Permanent Secretary Kevin Mahoney and the Attorney General.