Transition Advisor Peter Thiel Could Directly Profit From Mass Deportations

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TRANSITION ADVISER PETER THIEL COULD DIRECTLY PROFIT FROM MASS DEPORTATIONS

Spencer Woodman
December 12 2016, 1:13 p.m.

PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES, the data mining company co-founded by billionaire and Trump transition advisor Peter Thiel, will likely assist the Trump Administration in its efforts to track and collect intelligence on immigrants, according to a review of public records by The Intercept. Since 2011, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has paid Palantir tens of millions of dollars to help construct and operate a complex intelligence system called FALCON, which allows ICE to store, search, and analyze troves of data that include family relationships, employment information, immigration history, criminal records, and home and work addresses.

In a separate multi-million-dollar contract signed in 2014, Thiel’s $20 billion company is building a complex case management system for ICE’s HSI, which processes tens of thousands of civil and criminal cases each year.

Working closely with a President-elect who has pledged to dramatically expand ICE, Thiel’s varied connections to the immigration agency place him in a position to potentially benefit financially from a deportation campaign that carries highly personal stakes for millions of Americans.

Since Thiel joined Trump’s transition team last month, Palantir’s wide-ranging contracts with federal agencies — that include the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency — have raised eyebrows of ethics watchdogs. In recent years, the federal government has reportedly paid Palantir some $340 million in contracts. Concerns over Thiel’s potential conflicts deepened last week when it was reported that he would not confirm whether or not he had signed standard paperwork barring him from participating in Trump transition matters that might conflict with his private interests....

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/12/transition-adviser-peter-thiel-would-directly-profit-from-mass-deportations/