A former top insurance executive in Hong Kong now heads an office that sells European Union (EU) “golden passports” to prospective investors from Lebanon.
Marc Menard, the previous managing partner of Swiss Insurance Partners (Hong Kong) Ltd., has been appointed to hold the same position at Henley & Partners office in Beirut.
Henley & Partners, a residence and citizenship planning firm and the group company of Swiss Insurance Partners, is the concessionaire of the Maltese government’s Individual Investor Program (IIP).
The IIP scheme grants a “golden passport” and citizenship in Malta – an EU member state since 2004 – to a high net worth foreigner who will pay €650,000.
Menard will lead the Henley office that sells the Maltese and EU citizenship in Lebanon under the IIP scheme.
“We see an increasingly high number of second citizenship applicants from Lebanon because for a number of years the region has been grappling with issues related to political stability, security and travel restrictions,” Malta Today quoted Menard as saying.
Henley’s Beirut office opened this week and was graced by Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who addressed a conference arranged by the citizenship planning firm.
