Former MP José Herrera has been earmarked to lead the board of the government’s golden passports agency. Government sources said Herrera, who missed out on re-election earlier this year, is expected to be appointed non-executive chairman of Community Malta. The agency runs the passports-for-cash scheme as well as all other national citizenship applications. Contacted last week, Herrera told Times of Malta he had no comment to make at this stage. A lawyer by profession, Herrera had served in different cabinet positions after Labour was first elected back in power in 2013. Most recently, he served as culture minister, having previously been responsible for the environment, and local councils before that. He surprised many when he failed to make it back to parliament in the 2022 general election in March. Herrera returned to his practice as a criminal defence lawyer and had at a point been among the names mentioned for the post of standards commissioner. Malta’s lucrative golden passports scheme targets high net worth elite seeking easy and uninhibited access to the EU. It generated more than €800 million between its launch in 2014 and 2020 and was celebrated by the Labour...
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