Residency Granted For Fictitious Bonds?

  • 13 Feb 2017 6:10 AM
Residency Granted For Fictitious Bonds?
As many as 1,671 foreigners may have received Hungarian residency permits without actually purchasing the state bonds that grant this status, Magyar Nemzet concludes based on discrepancies in official records.

According to the state debt manager ÁKK, a total of 4,702 residency bonds have been issued since they were introduced in 2013.

However, Immigration and Refugee Office (BMH) figures indicate that 6,373 such bonds have been issued.

The difference may point to a serious problem, as the ÁKK registers the number of bonds actually issued, but the BMH obtains its data from the agents selling these bonds, most of which are offshore entities, Magyar Nemzet underlines.

The BMH does not check whether subscribers reported to it had actually purchased any bonds.

It is also odd, the newspaper observes, that Liechtenstein-registered agent S&Z had brokered two bond sales in 2016 although its licence had been withdrawn in September 2014.

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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