Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.05.2011, Síða 10

10
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 5 — 2011
THE SITUATION
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: North
American billionaires apply to Alþingi
for instant Icelandic citizenship. They’re
likely all crooked assholes, hell bent
on buying up the country’s natural re-
sources á la Magma Energy “Sweden”
and at least one of them has a shady fi-
nancial past. They have some Canadian
lawyer doing their dirty work—Canadi-
ans have it out for Iceland, you know—
who helps rich goons like this evade
taxes; a real piece of work.
‘Who do they think they are?’ some
question. ‘Icelandic citizenship is not
for sale!’ others chime in.
The media was abuzz with allega-
tions that the ‘North American billion-
aires’ were positioning themselves via
possibly-for-sale-citizenship to pur-
chase Iceland’s geothermal interests. In
a nationalistic tizzy, the general popu-
lation—myself included, as a non-EEA
citizen set to depart for my next legally-
mandated 90-days outside the Schen-
gen Area—decried en masse: Thanks.
But no thanks.
THE ALTERNATIVE
Canadian lawyer, David Lesperance, of
Lesperance & Associates, approached
Alþingi on behalf of ten clients in early
2011, proposing the government con-
sider adopting legislation that would
grant citizenship to foreign nationals
who enter binding agreements to infuse
long-terms capital into the country. His
clients—seven Americans, one Cana-
dian and one Russian—have already
sourced potential areas for investment
in the technology and fledgling electric
automotive industries. He applied for
their citizenship under Article 6 of the
Icelandic Nationality Act, which cir-
cumvents the residency requirements
of Article 7, pending review of his pro-
posal by the General Committee and
Alþingi.
According to Lesperance, whose
work largely entails securing alternate
citizenships and building passport
portfolios for his oft-wealthy clientele—
folks upon whom he has bestowed the
moniker of ‘Golden Goose’—the attrac-
tion to Iceland stems from three attri-
butes that are high-ranking factors for
all his clients: geology (clean energy),
geography (proximity to North America
and continental Europe, with abundant
existing and planned data cable capac-
ity) and human capital (Icelanders are
highly literate, educated and innova-
tive).
As the Grapevine reported in early
April, the government’s reaction was
one of suspicion, with the Minister of
the Interior, Ögmundur Jónasson, tell-
ing RÚV that "citizenship is not for
sale.” He continued: "It is my opinion
that Icelanders should tread carefully
when old Mammon is about." The Chair
of the committee charged with han-
dling such applications for citizenship,
Robert Marshall, seemed more open to
discussing the merits of Lesperances
proposal, telling Kastljósið that the gov-
ernment should examine citizenship as
a means of luring investment.
THE PROPOSAL
In a document titled “Draft Policy
Statement for General Committee in
exercising its power under Article 6 of
Icelandic Nationality Act” prepared by
Lesperance & Associates for consider-
ation by Alþingi, the lawyer outlined the
goals of his proposal as follows:
• To increase the human capital re-
quired to bring about the innovation
cluster contemplated in the Digital
Harbor Project;
• To ensure that process and proce-
dures are in place in order to screen
out unsuitable candidates for mem-
bership in Team Iceland;
• To make sure that Iceland is always
competitive with regards to attract-
ing suitable candidates;
• To ensure that processes and pro-
cedures are in place in order to
avoid fraud committed against both
Iceland and candidates;
• To ensure that processes and pro-
cedures are in place to ensure that
commitments made by candidates
who are seeking citizenship are ful-
filled;
• To ensure that the process is seen
to be transparent and of the highest
quality in Iceland, internationally,
and by potential future candidates;
• To ensure that all steps are taken to
maximize the potential future ben-
efits to the applicant.
Explains Lesperance: “When you at-
tract these people, you have a commit-
ment from them upfront. This might be
a bad analogy, but if they are granted
Icelandic citizenship and they get hit
by a bus the next day you have still got
investment locked in for ten years, spe-
cifically excluded from fisheries, energy
distribution and generation, alumini-
um… those were my suggestions, but
if there are other politically sensitive
industries that I haven’t picked up on
then [the government can] put a re-
striction on them.”
THE CONCLUSION
On April 28, Lesperance wrote in an
e-mail that he had been unofficially in-
formed by the local lawyer with whom
he and his clients worked that they
would soon be receiving a formal letter
of rejection of the 10 applications sub-
mitted under Article 6.
“What we have found very disap-
pointing,” he wrote, “is that this deci-
sion was made without any of the key
decision makers (the Prime Minister,
Minister of Finance or Minister of Jus-
tice and all members of the General
Committee) accepting my standing in-
vitation to fully question me as to the
proposal that I was making, or even a
cursory examination of the background
or merits of any single one of the ap-
plicants. Rather it appears that both the
concept and these applicants were pre-
judged based upon false accusations,
which were planted in the media [and],
which were directly aimed at exploiting
the emotional trauma inflicted on the
Icelandic public by the fiscal crisis.”
The Ministry of the Interior’s web-
site has also updated with a statement
on economic citizenship and rumours
of Iceland’s adoption of such policies,
which reads in part that “the Ministry
wishes to state clearly that no changes
of this type have been made in Icelan-
dic legislation and it has no plans to
propose amendments by which any ex-
ceptions would be made from the nor-
mal conditions for receiving Icelandic
citizenship, either in return for payment
or for commercial reasons.”
Lesperance has confirmed that his
efforts to secure citizenship for his cli-
ents in Iceland have ceased and that he
has been approached by other EU na-
tions who have followed his efforts with
Iceland in the media and elsewhere,
who would be willing to examine the
merits of his clients more closely.
THE LESSON?
Should Alþingi have proceeded with
Lesperance’s proposal for factoring
economic investment into the nations
existing citizenship laws? Who knows;
that’s up to the government to decide.
Canada grants ‘investor visas’ to for-
eign nationals under similar circum-
stances. Austria grants citizenship. The
precedent is there for Alþingi to con-
sider and to weigh whether that option
is right for Iceland.
But let’s have a fair debate about it
next time something like this comes up.
Are there going to be some shady
people eyeing Iceland as it continues to
find its financial footing? Yes.
Does it suck that natural resources
were privatised by the conservative
government, thereby enabling Magma
Energy to take ownership of HS Orka?
HELL YES.
Will this same scenario play out
again if Iceland considers investment-
for-citizenship proposals? That is en-
tirely up to the government.
“Immigrants throughout the history
of mankind have always immigrated
because they felt the place they want-
ed to go was better for them and their
family than the place that they’re from,”
said Lesperance. “So countries have to
ask ‘are these immigrants a valuable
contribution to our country?’ and ‘Do
we have processes in place to screen
out the bad people?’”
If you welcome a bull into a china
shop, you had better blame yourself
when things are broken; at the same
time, you shouldn’t assume that every
knock on the door is a bull.
Opinion | Catharine Fulton
Catharine Fulton raises a fair point here, and leaves us with some interesting ques-
tions to ponder. Do you think Iceland should try and benefit from 'investor visas'?
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