Peter Thiel is pursuing Maltese citizenship through Malta’s “golden passport” programme. Photo / Andrew White, The New York Times
Peter Thiel is pursuing Maltese citizenship through Malta’s “golden passport” programme. Photo / Andrew White, The New York Times
The island nation of more than 500,000 people shares similarities with any Southern California beach town. With a Mediterranean climate, Malta attracts tourists from across the European continent hoping to squeeze out the last days of summer sun in mid-September.
In recent years, the country has also attracted global eliteslooking to obtain secondary citizenships. Since 2013, Malta has raked in hundreds of millions of euros selling “golden passports” through a citizenship-for-sale offer, in which a buyer can get a passport in about 12 months with a 750,000 euro ($1.2 million) payment to the local government. The programme has brought people to the island hoping to safeguard against turmoil in their home countries or live freely across the European Union, which counts Malta as a member.
Among those whom Malta has attracted is Peter Thiel, the Los Angeles-based technology investor, who has become one of the biggest individual donors in recent US elections. He has applied for citizenship to Malta, according to documents viewed by The New York Times and three people with knowledge of the matter.
Thiel, a PayPal co-founder and the first outside investor in Facebook, backed Donald Trump in 2016 with a late US$1.25 million ($2.2 million) donation. And in this midterm election cycle, he has spent about US$30 million supporting the campaigns of more than a dozen Republican candidates, who have pledged to combat perceived globalist influences on the US government and to put “America First.”
“I don’t think it’s just about flipping the Senate,” former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said earlier this year. “I think Peter wants to change the direction of the country.”
Yet as he’s tried to alter the makeup of Congress to his liking, Thiel may be looking for something of an escape hatch. If he’s approved, Maltese citizenship would be the third passport for a man who already holds US and New Zealand citizenship and is known to hedge his bets.
Vittoriosa in the Grand Harbour, Malta. Photo / Susan Wright, The New York Times
There is “no other country that aligns more with my view of the future than New Zealand,” Thiel wrote on his application for New Zealand citizenship in 2011, which he received after making investments in the country and donating $1 million to an earthquake relief fund.
So why would a man so invested in changing the state of this country to his specifications want a potential backup plan? Lawyers and tax experts told me and my colleague, Justin Scheck, that there are no obvious tax benefits to having Maltese citizenship and that they typically saw Russian, Chinese and Saudi citizens apply to the program for ease of access to the EU.
Through a spokesman, Thiel, whose net worth is estimated to be US$4.2 billion, according to Forbes, declined to comment.
Joseph Muscat, Malta’s former prime minister who resigned in 2019 amid protests about corruption and the murder of a journalist who was critical of his government, said the country’s passport investment program was “an insurance policy” for wealthy individuals “where they feel there is a great deal of volatility.”
“It’s straightforward,” he said. “You pay into a national fund, and the national fund uses that money for infrastructure and for social housing.”
It’s unclear if Thiel will be granted Maltese citizenship. The head of Community Malta, the agency responsible for selling passports, declined to comment on his application.
It’s also unclear if he’ll live on the Mediterranean island if he does get the passport. He lists a two-bedroom apartment in Valletta as his residence in Malta, unlike his multimillion-dollar homes in the Hollywood Hills, Miami Beach and Washington, D.C. (Citizen applicants are required to establish a residence on the island, though they are not required to live there full time.)
I visited the apartment building last month and was surprised when someone actually buzzed me in after I rang the doorbell. After climbing three flights of stairs, I came face to face, not with the billionaire, but a British tourist, who had no idea who lived in the flat or owned it. She said that her family was there on holiday and that they had booked it on a short-term rental site.
I later found the apartment on Airbnb listed as a “2BR Seafront Executive Penthouse.” It cost 185 euros ($318) a night to rent.
