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Malta Revokes Citizenship of Convicted Money Launderer · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Malta has revoked the citizenship of Semen Kukhov, a 24-year-old Russian national serving five years in a British prison for operating an international money laundering network.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: The latest government gazette has published the decision, which strips Kuksoff of the Maltese passport he and his father, Vladimir, obtained in 2022 through the country's now-defunct Maltese citizenship by investment program.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: The revocation comes three years after Kuksoff acquired citizenship through Malta's CBI program.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Malta terminated the program in July 2025, following an April European Court of Justice ruling that condemned it as a transactional naturalization procedure, shifting instead to a merit-based citizenship framework.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Kuksoff's conviction in the United Kingdom followed a national crime agency investigation that exposed his role in laundering millions of euros for criminal organizations worldwide.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: UK authorities described his operation as a professional banking service for criminals, with an NCA operations manager noting that, without such services, the business model of many criminal organizations would collapse.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: According to the NCA, Kuksoff ran an underground cryptocurrency exchange that served clients unable to access legitimate financial systems.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: The operation moved over 14 million euros in just 74 days using cash handovers with low-denomination banknotes serving as verification tokens.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Investigators said Kuksoff and an associate facilitated transactions for groups involved in Russian organized crime, ransomware operations, and narcotics trafficking.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Kuksoff pleaded guilty and received a five-year and seven-month prison sentence in the United Kingdom.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: The conviction triggered Malta's revocation provisions under its citizenship law.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: James Muscat Azopardi, partner at Muscat Azopardi and Associates, explains that, quote, every applicant for Maltese citizenship under the previous Malta Exceptional Investor Naturalization was subjected to a very thorough due diligence, end quote.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: He notes this process made it impossible for anyone with a criminal record to be granted citizenship.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Muscat Azopardi emphasizes that, quote, Malta wanted protection in cases where criminal offenses were committed after the acquisition of citizenship.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so Maltese law specifically allows for the revocation of citizenship in cases where an individual is sentenced in any country to imprisonment for more than a year, as happened in this particular case.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: End quote.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Malta undertook the revocation under the provisions of Article 13 of the Maltese Citizenship Act, which permits the withdrawal of citizenship if a person receives a criminal conviction and sentence exceeding one year of imprisonment within seven years of naturalization.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Vladimir Kuksov, Simon's father and a Russian businessman who obtained Maltese citizenship through the same program, faces no implication in the money laundering case.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: His citizenship remains valid.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Vladimir has publicly distanced himself from his son's criminal activities.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: This episode first appeared as an article by Ahmad Abbas on IMIDAily.com.
• 3:07
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• 3:13
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