The Thiel File/CASE 30/2011–2022

Power

The New Zealand passport, and the “bunker”

Citizenship after 12 days, a refused lodge, and a reported Maltese bid

Mountains around the northern part of Lake Wānaka, New Zealand, April 2019. A regional landscape, not a photograph of Thiel’s property or evidence of a bunker.
Michal Klajban · Source & image context ↗

RECORD / AT A GLANCE

Official records

Citizenship documented. The bunker is unproven.

THE EVENTS / THE INVESTIGATION / THE STORY

The chronology.

READ THE FILE

Evidence & assessment.

01

How he became a New Zealander

The legal route.

↗02

The lodge, and the bunker story

What the plans showed.

↗

Open an article for its evidence, labeled AI assessment and numbered sources. Read the complete static edition ↗

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE

The claims, rated.

6 claims people make about this file, each rated documented, partly true, disputed, unproven or false. Think a rating is wrong? Use Dispute or Support, or join the Discussion.

DOCUMENTED New Zealand, Argentina & abroad

“Thiel got New Zealand citizenship after 12 days there.”

The government’s papers show 12 days as a resident in the assessment period; he used a discretionary exception.

Who says it: DIA, Auditor-General.

The evidence in this file ↗ · On the full claims board ↗

PARTLY TRUE New Zealand, Argentina & abroad

“Thiel bought New Zealand citizenship.”

He received a discretionary grant for “exceptional circumstances” that ordinary applicants do not get. No payment for citizenship is recorded.

Who says it: Critics.

The evidence in this file ↗ · On the full claims board ↗

All 153 rated claims ↗

OPEN THE RECORD

Sources & limits.

Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.

  1. Office of the Auditor-General (New Zealand): letter on Thiel’s citizenship, 17 July 2017 ↗

    Explains the section 9(1)(c) “exceptional circumstances” power the minister used in June 2011.

  2. New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs: release on days Thiel spent in New Zealand, 29 June 2017 (PDF) ↗

    Official file: 12 days as a permanent resident in the five-year assessment period.

  3. New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs: citizenship of Mr Peter Thiel ↗

    The department’s page with the released papers.

  4. CNBC: council planner says Thiel’s New Zealand lodge should be rejected, 3 May 2022 ↗

    Notes the 2015 purchase for a reported $13.5 million and that it is unclear whether any building was meant as a bunker.

  5. The Guardian: Thiel refused consent for sprawling New Zealand lodge, 18 August 2022 ↗

    Reports the refusal over landscape effects; quotes consent documents.

  6. NZ Herald / Otago Daily Times: Thiel’s Lake Wanaka lodge plans rejected, 18 August 2022 ↗

    Local detail: commissioners, Second Star Ltd, the 193-hectare farm.

  7. The New York Times: Peter Thiel is said to seek Maltese citizenship, 15 October 2022 ↗

    Report based on unnamed sources. Paywalled.

← The Thiel hub: biography, timeline and every file

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