Billionaire Republican donor Peter Thiel reported to be seeking Maltese passport

Peter Thiel, the billionaire and Republican political patron, is in the process of acquiring at least his third passport – Maltese citizenship – through the country’s million-euro golden passport scheme, the New York Times has reported.

He was said to be renting a two-bedroom apartment in Malta in preparation to acquire his EU citizenship.

“Since backing Donald J. Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, the technology investor has become one of the largest individual donors in the midterm elections next month, spending more than $30 million on more than a dozen right-wing Congressional candidates who have decried globalization and pledged to put America first,” the New York Times said.

Thiel was born in Germany and holds American and New Zealand passports.

Thiel, who co-founded the digital payments company PayPal and was Facebook’s first professional investor, declined to comment. His net worth stands at $4.2 billion, according to Forbes.

“It is unclear why Mr. Thiel’s nominal residence in Malta is listed as a 185-euro-a-night vacation rental on Airbnb. Maltese naturalization laws are straightforward for those who can pay more than €500,000 for a passport, but they prohibit would-be citizens from renting out their official residences while their passport application is pending,” the New York Times reported about his Maltese residence.

In the United States, the bulk of Thiel’s political donations have gone to support two friends who previously worked for him: J.D. Vance, a Republican running for Ohio’s open Senate seat, and Blake Masters, a Republican challenger in Arizona to Senator Mark Kelly. Vance worked at Mithril Capital, one of Thiel’s investment funds. Masters was chief operating officer of Thiel Capital, the billionaire’s family office.

Thiel is an investor in a Malta-based venture fund, Elevat3 Capital, run by Christian Angermayer, a German investor.

In early 2021, Thiel Capital also became a shareholder in a Malta entity. Thiel and his husband Matt Danzeisen, together with investors from a firm called Coru, established a company in Malta called EUM Holdings Melite Ltd. EUM is owned by Thiel and Danzeisen, Richard Li — a son of Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing — and a group with a former Nicaraguan government official, and a scion of the Spanish family that made a fortune selling Lladró porcelain figurines.

The New York Times identified a listing for a “2BR Seafront Executive Penthouse” on Airbnb that used Thiel’s address.

Maltese property records show the apartment is owned by Andrew Zammit, who has a licence to promote Malta’s passport sale. Zammit’s wife was named as the host of the Airbnb listing.

Zammit declined to say if he had rented the flat to Thiel or if the billionaire was applying for a Maltese passport. He also declined to say why the apartment was listed on Airbnb. Within days after the New York Times inquired about the Airbnb listing, it was made unavailable for future rentals.