This is the story of how criminals can buy their way into Europe — for the right price.

Through Cyprus’s now-notorious “golden passport” scheme, wealthy foreign nationals were promised European Union citizenship in exchange for multi-million dollar investments, usually in luxury real estate. The catch? Some of those new “citizens” were wanted criminals, convicted fraudsters, or money launderers — and the government knew.

Al Jazeera’s investigative team went undercover, posing as representatives of a fictional Chinese billionaire convicted of bribery and money laundering. What they uncovered was jaw-dropping:
→ Real estate agents, lawyers, and politicians coaching them on how to hide the criminal past
→ Insider access for sale — including through the Speaker of Cyprus’s Parliament
→ Shell companies, fake names, and promises to “fix” criminal records for a fee
→ Secret meetings with the president of parliament, who vowed to “support at any level — political, economic, social, everything”

What began as a $2.5 million “investment” quickly turned into a laundering operation with state cooperation. And as the layers peeled back, the rot reached the very top of the Cypriot government.

This is one of the most shocking undercover investigations in recent years.
Let’s break down how it happened — and who was involved.