Here is an article without paywall: Empresário terá burlado investidores de vistos gold em 37 milhões (incluindo Secretário de Trump)
Here is an article without paywall:
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Thank you for the link - that is wild. I hope potential applicants are really doing their due diligence.
Here is a new short video on the amicus curiae brief from an influencer who tried to be accurate and fair to investors. No sugarcoating, no “get in now” pitch, nothing to sell - just information.
If you are on this forum and you agree, please engage with the video so that she feels the support of our community. 
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Until opening the link I wasn’t sure whether this was just the regular Golden Visa program, or something more 
Portuguese Golden Visa Ponzi Scheme Siphons €37 Million from Investors
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If anyone knows the brilliant South Asian guy who recorded the viral “F@#% Crypto” clip, could we get him to record the following script? Wish he was on Cameo… 
"F@#% Portugal Golden Visa.
You don’t need the anxiety.
Before you bought into the bull$hit fantasy immigration program,
your life was good, but then you made some money and became greedy;
you thought you deserved to live in Europe.
Now the bull$shit program is f@#%ed, and nobody can tell you when it is going to be unf@#%ed.
Even the motherf@#%er who convinced you to buy into the bull$hit program,
who told you that it is going to be the next big thing,
that motherf@#%er is nowhere to be found.
You are on your own, and all you can do is cry about it in the shower,
and hope that your bull$hit immigration program will unfreeze again so that you can pay more fees and spend more years of your life waiting for it,
and then get f@#%ed all over again.
That is Portugal Golden Visa."
Trigger warning: profanity
Pnut Dev on X: “We should have listened to this guy https://t.co/XgapaJxAZk” / X
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While I realise Thanksgiving is over (it is no longer October 
) I have to say that I am eternally thankful for the NG community. Only here do people understand just how difficult these changes to the Nationality Law will be if the rug gets fully pulled out from under us.
I grow weary of people asking about the changes and if we will be affected. Our replies are usually met with surprise, denialism and defiance. None of them are investors and none of them have had any recent dealings with SEF/AIMA so they don’t actually believe what we are telling them as their experience is different. When we point out that their experiences as EU citizens or pre-Brexit Brits aren’t similar we get push-back. It’s like they don’t want to believe that something as odious as these changes could happen in Portugal. People tell us that it “won’t happen”, or it “won’t be as bad as you think”, or my personal favourite, “the government has the right to do this and you’ll just have to accept it.” Ugh.
My wife and I don’t go around broadcasting our opinions and feelings on this but we are asked about it all the time. It would be our Xmas wish for people to have some perspective and realise that we are not beating up on Portugal, but we are expressing frustration at the situation we, and thousands of others like us, are currently in.
Anyway, rant over. Thanks for listening and for having this particular thread open.
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Thank you @DrNBC for sharing. I too am grateful to share our thoughts and “discuss” among those who are experiencing the same thing.
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Portugal crowned “Economy of the Year” as its lawmakers incinerate the openness to investment and immigration that allowed it to achieve this:
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The GV huckster who wrote that article (“This recognition from The Economist is confirmation of a long-term trajectory rather than a one-year anomaly.”) conveniently forgot to mention the whole “double years required for citizenship,” etc. bad stuff 
Trajectory may have peaked…
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Again more of this heavy lifting for nationalism tripe. We just had someone send us a link to the Global Peace Index where Portugal came 7th. Great. I’m delighted for Portugal. I just wonder if they thought that a 7th place finish on the GPI was more than enough to counteract the proposed changes to residency and our bank account?
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For a $15,000 DHS processing fee* and, after background approval, a contribution of $1 million, receive U.S. residency in record time with the Trump Gold Card.
*Additional small fees to the U.S. Department of State may apply depending on the applicant.
Open to all right now.
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I came in in 2021 on the fund path. With some decent guidance from one of the facilitators and after vetting a number of funds/fund managers, we selected three: Pela Terra (because it felt good), Blue Crow Growth Fund (solid history and decent performing firms) and Lince Capital’s Innovation fund (as a tech oriented portfolio). They have done decently, with both Lince and Blue Crow having some solid winners along with the inevitable dogs. Excepting Pela, they all made numerous investments and spread the capital across Portugal. Capital that came in large part from ARI investors.
Now, to the point: I am going to begin requesting them to issue some favorable press releases about the winners in their funds, while emphasizing the origin of the funds. I would like to see something along the lines of: “BlueCrow is pleased to announce that XYZCo, a firm funded by BC’s Growth Fund, has achieved [some excellent result]. The Growth Fund was created with numerous foreign investments made in compliance with the ARI (Golden Visa) initiative which was established to encourage foreign investment in Portugal by individual investors also seeking residency and a 5 year path to citizenship.”
Or words to that effect. I think it time for the fund folks to step up and help promote where this success originated, as opposed to the public thinking capital just materializing out of thin air.
UPDATE: a version of the attached email was sent to each of the fund managers.
Lince Capital _ Innovation Fund _ Request for assistance.pdf (642.1 KB)
UPDATE 2: I received two very favorable replies from the funds indicating they would look for opportunities to try in increase favorable publicity. Then this morning, received the following (and my reply) from Blue Crow.
From: António (balance of email details edited)
We will try to increase the exposure of the benefits of GV investments. As matter a fact, I am planning to showcase the GV investment at a major independent news blog and Vlog called “Cor do Dinheiro” from a very popular commentator called Camilo Lourenço. You can see his webpage here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ACorDoDinheiro
We are a supporter of his page and Weekley commentary on savings and investment, and will use its base of +100k subscribers on the YouTube and other media to explain in “normal” language the benefit of the program. I am just waiting for the right time to air the program. Do you think that now during Christmas season we should do a program on the subject? Or should we wait for the first weeks of March (my original idea)?
Warm regards,
António
Antonio, your news and offer is most welcome!
Given the TC will present its opinion on Monday, I would favor the earlier presentation. There is a lot of attention to the ARI right now, so viewership may be high.
The “normal language” discussion can certainly help bring balanced understanding and potentially serve as an “authoritative source” for interested parties.
And certainly be a morale/spirit boost to the community to see a partner with BlueCrow’s stature presenting.
I would certainly do what I could to spread awareness of the event. Let me know when and the word will be spread.
Muito Obrigado,
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State sponsored Ponzi scheme.
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Much of the Ponzi scheme was fuelled by delusion. For example, this “bulletproof” chap:
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When decisions become based on political whims rather than established legal tradition and rule of law, it’s not possible to accurately predict the future. This is the very reason for honouring the rule of law. When the court states that a transitional period is satisfied by some vague notion of indirect notice by means of a mere legislative proposal (rather than a legally binding law), we have to some extent thrown all norms and traditions into the garbage. If Portugal had added a waiver to every application of “The promised benefits of the ARI programme are not guaranteed and may change to your detriment at any time.” I wouldn’t be complaining now.
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Agreed, Portugal’s rule of law has been thrown in the trash.
To whomever happens to be fortunate enough to be a citizen of a country that has a bilateral investment treaty (“BIT”) with Portugal including an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism (“ISDS”) that allows decisions under arbitration in neutral venues such as ICSID or UNCITRAL, our last remedy may well be to sue Portugal under these treaties.
You can check the link below to confirm whether your countries of citizenship have a treaty in force.
For any citizens of Türkiye (which does have a BIT with Portugal containing an neutral-venue ISDS) interested in exploring this path once the citizenship law is finalized, please PM me.
Link:
https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/international-investment-agreements/iia-mapping
Filters:
ISDS = “Yes”,
Type of consent to arbitration = “Express or implied consent”, and
Pull separate datasets for “ICSID” and “UNCITRAL” forums to ensure they aren’t excluding BITs that only include one or the other.
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I am 21 mos into the citizenship process already but if there is a problem I am your man. India does have an ISDS.
I see the status as Terminated for India?
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True. India terminated it quite a few years ago. The previous decade if I’m not wrong. It’s been negotiating a fresh one but none exists as of today.