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, with Labour Party immigration spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway 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,’’ Mr Lees-Galloway said.
Mr Thiel has acquired a Wanaka lakefront estate. Property records show that his New Zealand-registered company Second Star bought a 193ha Glendhu Bay farm in 2015 described as a vacant lifestyle block.
Attempts to seek comment sent to Mr Thiel’s representatives in San Francisco yesterday went unanswered, as have multiple other attempts since the story broke 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 Mr Thiel failed to meet residency requirements — acknowledging he did not live in New Zealand, nor did he intend to in the future — and the granting of the application on account of his ‘‘exceptional’’ abilities in entrepreneurship and philanthropy.
Mr Thiel, worth $3.7 billion according to Forbes, became famous for co-founding Pay-Pal, 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 technology industry locals — and business partners of Mr Thiel’s — Sam Morgan and Rod Drury.
Nathan Guy, the minister who signed off the application in June 2011 and also corresponded with Mr Thiel’s lawyers in the months following the filing of the initial application in December 2010, said last week he could not recall the case.
Mr Lees-Galloway pointed to a cascade of unusual factors surrounding the case, ranging from less than 1% of applications requiring a ministerial waiver of 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 Mr Thiel’s did in August 2011 at the New Zealand consulate in Santa Monica.
‘‘I cannot believe that Nathan Guy could not recall this case.’’
