BRIDGES expert
Head of Compliance and Due Diligence, BRIDGES
I check a client the way the state and the bank will check them, only earlier: source of capital, ownership structure, history, passport. We find and close every weak spot before filing. Eighteen years in compliance, heading BRIDGES compliance since 2019.
Path
Graz, Valletta, Budapest. First compliance at a bank, then vetting applicants for citizenship programmes, now a preliminary audit of every BRIDGES client.
Born in Graz into a family of doctors. She chose Russian as her second language at university because she loved Chekhov, and later it became a working language.
Faculty of economics, specialising in financial markets and regulation. Thesis on client checks at banks after new EU anti-money-laundering rules.
Eight years in the compliance department of a large Austrian bank: clients from Eastern Europe and the CIS, source of funds, sanctions screening. She knows why a bank freezes a transfer and what it takes to unfreeze it.
Head of compliance at a citizenship programme agent in Malta. She prepared applicants for multi-level checks: offshores, nominee directors, complex capital histories.
Joined BRIDGES to build the compliance department. Since then every client goes through our preliminary audit before filing, as strict as the state’s.
Head of compliance at BRIDGES. Every file goes through Klara: source of capital, ownership structure, sanctions and reputational risks.
Approach to cases
Six rules Klara applies to every client check.
Whatever the authority’s or the bank’s check will find, we must find first and close with documents.
Lawful capital without documents looks suspicious to a check. The money’s history is gathered before filing.
Nominee directors and offshores are a red flag today. Full disclosure of the beneficial owner passes a check, concealment does not.
Even when applications on a passport are blocked, we look for lawful grounds: long residence in the EU, merit, history.
If a matter will not pass the check, we tell the client before filing and before any costs.
Only those running the matter see the client’s documents. Everything is stored under data protection rules.
Talks and media
Klara speaks at conferences on financial checks and compliance. You can book a meeting in advance.
Upcoming conferences
Klara online
Beyond work
At BRIDGES I am the person who asks the awkward questions before the state does. I love it when a client is first offended by my questions and after the approval writes: thank you for asking first.
I am from Graz, spent five years in Malta and now live in Budapest with my husband and daughter. At work my habit of noticing details saves me, and at home it is the garden, where details do not matter and what matters is that everything grows.
I read Chekhov in the original and still find something new in him. I love old cafés, take long walks in the Pilis hills and bake strudel from my mother’s recipe.
Situations
These are the questions clients most often bring to Klara.
Case stories
Malta · applicant checks
For years Roman held his business through a Panamanian company with nominee directors: that was the custom. The Maltese check required showing the ultimate owner all the way down.
We restructured the holding and fully disclosed the beneficial owner: the ownership chain, documents, the history of the capital. The file passed a four-level check.
Outcome: Beneficial owner disclosed, the check for Maltese citizenship passed
Malta · citizenship by merit
Mikhail, an IT entrepreneur from Belarus, has long lived in Poland and runs a business in Warsaw. His applications were rejected automatically, just because of his passport.
We built the matter on long residence in the EU and a scientific contribution he donated to a Maltese university. I assembled the vetting file so that his whole life was visible, not just the passport.
Outcome: Maltese citizenship by merit
Vanuatu · checks
That is how most conversations with entrepreneurs from Kazakhstan begin. Clean is about the law, but a check asks about documents: the capital is spread across companies and banks.
Before filing we run our own audit: we assemble the capital chain, statements, contracts. The state check takes up to seven working days, and by then the file is ready.
Outcome: Written preliminary approval and admission to filing
Reviews
Client reviews from matters Klara ran: who the client is, where they are from, which programme - and a link to the full case.
JohnCo-owner of a mining companyMy income is dividends from a mining company. Klara gathered the licences, the accounts and the profit distribution, and we passed the check. I have a Grenada passport.
Read the case
DmitryEntrepreneur from BelarusA tough request came in because of my Belarusian passport. Klara prepared a complete answer with documents, and the Nulla Osta was granted.
Read the case
Elenainterior studio ownerI simply moved to a bigger apartment, and the tax office saw a gap in my presence and issued a fine. Klara proved there was no gap, and the claims were dropped. The status is kept.
Read the caseMaterials
BRIDGES knowledge base materials signed by Klara: applicant checks, source of capital, offshores and sanctions risks.
BRIDGES sections
Team
A matter is never run by one person: the legal position, the filing, the documents and the work on the ground each have a named owner.
INITIAL ASSESSMENT
We will design a solution for your case, choose the country and the right status, and take the whole process through to the result.
