St Kitts & Nevis to launch CIDD Unit to enhance CBI supervision

The Government of St Kitts and Nevis is all set to establish the Continuing International Due Diligence Unit, also known as CIDD, which will commence its operations on July 31, 2024 onwards.

The development was announced on Friday during the sitting of the National Assembly of St. Kitts and Nevis where the 2nd reading was given to the highly important Citizenship by Investment Unit Bill 2024. According to Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Terrance Drew, the CIDD Unit will be overlooked by Ian Queeley who will be keeping a check on the overall management.

He mentioned that the unit will be headquartered in Europe and will conduct due diligence on the economic citizens from across the world.

Not only this, but the Unit will also be responsible for creating such policies which will mitigate as well as address risks linked with the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis who acquired citizenship via the CBI Programme.

The Prime Minister also added that the establishment of the CIDD will make sure that citizens having passports of the twin island nation who are living and working internationally follow the laws of the nations in why they reside or visit using the St. Kitts and Nevis passport. Meanwhile, it was stated by Dr. Drew that this will eventually alert the Ministry of National Security of St. Kitts and Nevis citizens who are being under investigation for committing or have been charged or arrested with financial or any other crimes globally.

While shedding a light on the significance of this Unit, he added that when needed it will also report citizens facing investigations for committing a crime to international law enforcement, anti terrorist financial agencies as well as anti laundering agencies.

This will include reporting those individuals who have been either charged with or arrested for financial or any other criminal activities in any country in the world.

PM Terrance Drew continued to emphasize that the Continuity International Due Diligence Unit will also be responsible for retrieving passports which have been issued by the Federation but canceled by the minister responsible. This act will take place under the provision of National under the Passport and Travel Document Act Prince 5 of the US Caribbean Roundtable on Citizenship by Investment.