St Kitts and Nevis all set to establish CIDD Unit by July 2024

 St Kitts and Nevis: The Continuing International Due Diligence Unit is all set to be established and start its operation by July 31, 2024. The decision was announced on Friday during the sitting of the National Assembly of St Kitts and Nevis where the second reading was given to the Citizenship by Investment Unit Bill, 2024.

Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew termed it a “mechanism” for protecting the reputation of Citizenship by the Investment Programme of St Kitts and Nevis on the international stage. The main headquarter of the CIDD unit will be situated in Europe where the due diligence on economic citizens from across the globe will be conducted.

The operations of the CIDD unit will be overseen by Ian Queeley who is the Ambassador for the Eastern Caribbean States to the Kingdom of Morocco. In addition to that, he also served as the Commissioner of the Royal Police of St Kitts and Nevis.

Prime Minister Dr Drew shed light on the functions of the unit during the reading of the bill and added that the risks associated with the economic citizens of St Kitts and Nevis will be addressed and mitigated by the unit.

The foremost function of the unit is to ensure that the citizens with the passports of St Kitts and Nevis and working and residing internationally must abide by the laws of those countries and respect their laws as well. In case, an arrest or investigation has been made against these citizens with respect to financial or other crimes worldwide, then, the unit is authorized to alert the Ministry of National Security of St Kitts and Nevis.

In addition to that, the unit will have to report to international law enforcement, anti-money laundering, and anti-terrorist financing agencies about the crime committed by the economic citizens of St Kitts and Nevis. The unit will also be assigned the authority to retrieve the passports issued by the country that have been canceled by the Ministry.

The step would be taken under the provision of National according to the Passport and Travel Document Act Principle 5 of the US-Caribbean roundtable on CBI.

With these steps, PM Drew added that the government of St Kitts and Nevis has been working to take strict measures to protect the dignity of the country at the international stages.