Peter Thiel was granted NZ citizenship, despite only twelve days in Aotearoa, by the Key Government on the extraordinary circumstances clause. Thiel was a close associate of infamous sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein until his death, is the co-founder of the Orwellian weapons and technology company Palantir, and publicly espouses hateful values that contradict our New Zealand values of peace, equality, and diversity.

Under Section 16 of the Citizenship Act 1977, the Minister may deprive a citizen of their citizenship if they have acted against the interests of New Zealand. We are petitioning Minister Stanford to invoke this clause against Thiel.

 

Jeffery Epstein was convicted of sex trafficking in 2008, yet when Thiel founded Valar Ventures in 2010 he reached out to Epstein to co-invest in the firm. Valar Ventures invested in New Zealand companies Xero and Vend, and had a NZ specific fund for $32 million USD. Epstein contributed a significant $40 million USD to the firm. It is alleged that Epstein’s contribution is now worth $170 million (close to a third of the pedofile's $600 million reported wealth).

Newly released correspondence between Thiel and Epstein show that they maintained a close relationship up until 2019, the year Epstein died in prison. Epstein invited Thiel to come to his island on numerous occasions, Thiel even responded “When are you there?” (however denies ever visiting the island). Epstein would describe Thiel as a “great friend” to other associates in emails. In 2015, Epstein and Thiel hosted a dinner with other Tech CEOs in Palo Alto, which Epstein described as “wild”. 

In one email, Epstein asked Thiel “Does my bad press give you pause?” and Thiel responded “If I was intimidated by bad press, I would not have gotten anywhere in life.”

 

Thiel was secretly approved for citizenship in 2011, which was only revealed publicly in 2017. Thiel had only spent 12 days in the country, and met none of the residency requirements that normal people must meet.

 

Peter Thiel co-founded the military technology company Palantir in 2003. Palantir supplies weapons and surveillance infrastructure to Israel for use against Palestinian civilians. In the United States, Palantir is used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who have been accused of unjust extrajudicial summary executions against protestors and civilians.

 

Thiel’s political beliefs and alignments are particularly disturbing. He has consistently made hateful statements, and continues to align himself with and support far-right and Nazi ideologues. 

Thiel himself publicly criticised women’s right to vote as being harmful for a capitalist democracy. In his biography The Contrarian the author alleges that Thiel defended apartheid as “economically sound”.

Alex Karp, Co-Founder and CEO of Palantir said “I spend a lot of time talking to Nazis, like, real Nazis” and that it was his way of “understanding what made them tick”. Karp also controversially stated that the United States should embrace having the most technologically advanced weapons possible and that “We need a new Manhattan Project”, referring to the nuclear bombs that were dropped on two cities in World War II.

Peter Thiel is a Republican mega-donor who supported JD Vance’s 2022 election as an Ohio senator, and nomination for Vice President to Trump. Thiel introduced Vance to Trump in Mar-a-lago in 2021. Thiel is a very close associate to Elon Musk as well, who infamously performed a Nazi salute at Trump’s second inauguration.

 

 

Under Section 16(a) of the Citizenship Act 1977, the Minister may

by order, deprive a person of his New Zealand citizenship if he is satisfied that the person has, while a New Zealand citizen and while of or over the age of 18 years and of full capacity,— acquired the nationality or citizenship of another country by any voluntary and formal act, and acted in a manner that is contrary to the interests of New Zealand; or

 

Thiel is a citizen of Germany and the United States, and would not be left stateless if the New Zealand Government were to deprive him of his citizenship. Thiel’s conduct is completely contrary to the interests of New Zealand. Thiel has tainted the New Zealand dollar by knowingly flooding our economy with the blood money of Epstein (as if his own money was not blood money either). He is supplying weapons and technology to a country that the United Nations have found to be guilty of committing genocide and New Zealand is a member state of the United Nations.