What’s common to industrialist Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod, businessman Pankaj Oswal and real estate baron Surendra Hiranandani? Cyprus. And their quest for its “golden passport”. A destination for floating offshore companies, Cyprus is also the favoured choice of wealthy Indians and NRIs looking to acquire its citizenship for a cozy life on the Mediterranean or for keeping a safe distance from criminal charges and money-laundering cases back home. Introduced in 2007, the “golden passport” scheme was also called the “Cyprus Investment Programme”. It facilitated the grant of Cypriot citizenship to financially prominent individuals, thereby bringing in foreign direct investments...