Philanthropy, entrepreneurial skills were reasons for Thiel citizenship: DIA docs

Entrepreneurial skills and philanthropic activities in New Zealand were the "exceptional circumstances" under which the government granted Peter Thiel citizenship in 2011, according to documents just released by the DIA under the Official Information Act.

Some of the information is redacted. At first blush, NBR does not consider the data dump answers all questions filed under the Official Information Act and will be following up.

The documents confirm Mr Thiel did not meet the usual criterion of an average 240 days in New Zealand in each of the five years leading up to the awarding of his citizenship on June 30, 2011 at a private ceremony in Santa Monica, California.

Then Immigration Minister Nathan Guy (who last week said he had no memory of events) followed departmental advice to give the billionaire a passport.

Mr Thiel donated $1 million to Christchurch quake relief. 

The Trump insider has also invested in New Zealand companies including Xero and Pacific Fibre and put $15 million into a fund run by the Crown-backed NZVIF.

The DIA docs also reveal Mr Thiel's citizenship application had letters of support from NBR Rich Listers Rod Drury and Sam Morgan, his co-investors in Xero and Pacific Fibre.

Both Drury and Morgan took to social media to support Mr Thiel's citizenship. And although it was granted long before Donald Trump appeared on the political radar, Mr Morgan felt moved to add, "I don’t agree with Peter Thiel’s politics at all. Trump is dangerous, incompetent and just a horrible person."

Mr Drury posted, "Peter Thiel is a world-leading tech investor and a fascinating thinker. Of course NZ was right to make him a citizen."

Why he wanted to become a citizen
The reasons Mr Guy was willing to welcome him are clear. But why did Mr Thiel want citizenship? (a question that is the subject of at least two departmental emails in the data dump). On page 116 of the documents released today, the Trump transition team member says, "No other country that aligns more with my view of the future."

Pledge to promote his citizenship
"It would give me great pride to let it be known I am a New Zealand citizen and an enthusiastic supporter of the country and its emerging high-tech industry," Mr Thiel says in one of the documents supporting his application (pages 115/116).

Mr Thiel has indeed talked up New Zealand companies and the country as tech investment destination on a number of occasions. The citizen part, however, he kept under wraps.

Buying a slice of Wanaka
The entrepreneur's citizenship came to light last week after the Overseas Investment Office revealed he did not require approval for a purchase of a multimillion-dollar late-front Wanaka property because he was a New Zealand passport holder.

Forbes values Mr Thiel (the co-founder of Paypal and the first outside investor in Facebook) at $US2.7 billion. But he stands to multiply his wealth this year with an IPO anticipated for his surveillance software company Palantir, which has a private equity value north of $US20 billion.

His passport collection now stands at three. Mr Thiel was born in Germany 50 years ago, and became a naturalised American after his parents moved to the US as an infant.

RAW DATA: DIA documentation (PDF, 175 pages)

RAW DATA: DIA statement on Peter Thiel citizenship, Feb 01, 2017

While the Department doesn’t usually discuss individual citizenship details due to the standard privacy considerations applicable to all NZ citizens, there is sufficient public interest in Mr Peter Thiel’s case to warrant the release of further information requested under the Official Information Act.

Some of this information has been redacted for privacy reasons, due to commercial sensitivity, or to protect the free and frank exchange of opinions between public officials.

Around 30,000 citizenship applications are received every year. Of those approximately 300 (1%) are submitted to the Minister of Internal Affairs for individual consideration.

Some of these submissions will focus on where a sole eligibility criteria is not clearly met, while others may be considered on multiple grounds.

The assessment of applications under section 9(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act 1977 (Citizenship Act) takes into account the applicant's exceptional circumstances, as well as assessing any advantage, or positive benefit to New Zealand from approving the application.  All applications may be considered under this provision.

Since 2012, there have been 632 applications where the Minister has been specifically asked to consider Section 9(1)(c); of these 92 have been approved by the Minister as decision-maker.

*note these figures have been manually compiled and therefore may be subject to error. 

# submissions may be considered under multiple sections of the Citizenship Act and may have been recorded against an alternate section.

 As previously confirmed, Mr Peter Thiel applied for New Zealand citizenship in January 2011.  His application was approved by Ministerial decision, under Section 9(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act on 30 June 2011.   

Once citizenship has been approved, all applicants over the age of 14 must take either the Oath or Affirmation of Allegiance in accordance with the Citizenship Act for their citizenship to be effective.  The majority of applicants attend public ceremonies, however some applicants are unable to do this and they may attend a private ceremony. 

Since 2012, an average of 270 applicants attended a private ceremony each year.  Of these, an average of 24 people attended their private ceremony overseas. 

Mr Thiel attended a private ceremony at the New Zealand Consulate in Santa Monica in August 2011.

The Department will not be making any comment on the information released and believes the release answers all the requests submitted on the topic under the OIA.