The secret pride of Citizen Thiel
Billionaire would trumpet Kiwi status, application said
Controversial billionaire Peter Thiel claimed in a citizenship application that if his unusual request was granted he would tell the world he was a New Zealander.
“It would give him great pride to let it be known that he is a New Zealand citizen,” his lawyers wrote to the Minister of Internal Affairs.
That claim last night attracted ridicule, Labour Party immigration spokesman Iain LeesGalloway noting this pride was well-concealed despite his application having being approved in June 2011.
“He couldn’t have been that proud of it, because nobody knew about it for six years,” LeesGalloway said.
Attempts to seek comment sent to Thiel’s representatives in San Francisco yesterday went unanswered, as have multiple other attempts since the story broke in the Herald last week.
The 145-page citizenship application file, explaining what exceptional circumstances underlay the unusual award, was released last night after a nearly a week of repeated delays by the Department of Internal Affairs.
The file chronicled official concern that Thiel failed to meet residency requirements — acknowledging he did not live in New Zealand, nor did he intend
Thiel’s citizenship application is signed off by then Internal Affairs minister Nathan Guy.
Private citizenship ceremony takes place for Thiel in Santa Monica.
News of Citizen Thiel breaks in the New Zealand Herald. to in the future — but came down in favour of the application after being convinced of his “exceptional” abilities in entrepreneurship and philanthropy.
Thiel, worth $3.7 billion according to Forbes, became famous for co-founding PayPal, rich from investing early in Facebook, and has invested tens of millions of dollars in local businesses.
His application for citizenship was supported by letters of reference from prominent techno- logy industry locals — and business partners of Thiel’s — Sam Morgan and Rod Drury.
In a personal letter Thiel, who also held German and United States citizenship at the time of his application, was effusive about New Zealand.
“I have found no other country that aligns more with my view of the future,” he wrote.
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy, who signed the application off in June 2011 and also corresponded with Thiel’s lawyers in the months following the filing of the initial application in December 2010, said last week he couldn’t recall the case.
Lees-Galloway pointed to a cascade of unusual factors surrounding the case, ranging from fewer than 1 per cent of applications requiring a ministerial waiver under the “exceptional circumstances” clause of the Citizenship Act, to only one in eight — one a fortnight — being eventually signed off.
The department said fewer than one in 1000 citizenship ceremonies took place in a private ceremony overseas, as Thiel’s did in August 2011 at the New Zealand consulate in Santa Monica.
Last night a spokesman for Guy said: “He stands by what he said.”
In a press conference at the Karaka Sale on Monday, Guy said he had reviewed the file and said his decision was the right one.