At first glance, this story doesn’t seem particularly remarkable, but there are a number of layers to this onion. Google co-founder Larry Page has been a busy guy this year, getting in more travel than many of us. As part of his various journeys, he reportedly obtained New Zealand residency for himself and potentially some of his other family members back in February. There’s nothing illegal or particularly suspicious about that and plenty of people seek and obtain either residency visas or even dual citizenship on a regular basis. But the part of the story that is apparently creating a bit of a scandal is precisely how Page managed to pull this off, particularly during a time when New Zealand was still under quite restrictive lockdown orders due to COVID. (And they still are today, by the way.)

As the Associated Press reports, Page has been trying to obtain New Zealand residency since last November. With most people being barred from entering the country, that wouldn’t be easy. But the country sponsors a special program offering what are known as “Investor Plus” visas. Those are only available to people able to make a $10 million New Zealand dollar “investment” in the country. So now there are some residents asking if it’s acceptable for the ultra-wealthy to be able to buy their way into the country when so many working-class travelers are being denied.

Google co-founder Larry Page has gained New Zealand residency, officials confirmed Friday, stoking debate over whether extremely wealthy people can essentially buy access to the South Pacific country.

Immigration New Zealand said Page first applied for residency in November under a special visa open to people with at least 10 million New Zealand dollars ($7 million) to invest.

“As he was offshore at the time, his application was not able to be processed because of COVID-19 restrictions,” the agency said in a statement. “Once Mr. Page entered New Zealand, his application was able to be processed and it was approved on 4 February 2021.”

As we’ve discussed here in the past, New Zealand imposed some of the most restrictive lockdowns and travel bans in the world at the start of the pandemic. By doing so, they managed to “beat” the virus, having one of the lowest caseloads on the planet. Of course, they completely destroyed their tourism industry in the process and treated their citizens like prisoners, but that was the price to be paid to keep people out of the hospital, apparently.

So how did Page manage to beat all of those restrictions? He reportedly first applied for permission to travel there and seek residency back in November. But it had to be done in person and he was initially unable to make travel arrangements to do so. Then, in January of this year, Page filed an urgent request to be “evacuated from Fiji due to a medical emergency” involving his son. That request was granted, and soon both Larry Page and his son were in the country. Within a week or two he had his residency visa, later leaving the country.

That right there raises additional questions. If the Page family was facing a medical emergency that required evacuation, as an American citizen, why wasn’t he evacuated to the United States? America has what are arguably the best medical facilities in the world. And given his financial assets and access to private jets, Page obviously didn’t have any trouble getting into Fiji, and likely wouldn’t have had any trouble taking his son back to America either.

So does that mean that the “medical emergency” was just a ploy to get around the travel ban, allowing him to land in New Zealand and apply for the visa? (After paying the equivalent of seven million dollars in U.S. currency for the privilege, of course.)

Even if there’s nothing illegal about this (and there probably isn’t), it’s certainly not a good look for the New Zealand government. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was one of the most strict authoritarian world leaders to be found all through the pandemic. She was never shy about bragging about how she had beaten the virus and kept her nation safe. The period of time when the Page Deal was going down was when we were still seeing record levels of infections around the world and the vaccines hadn’t even been approved yet. But she was willing to cut a deal with Page as long as he was willing to write an eight-figure check?

The only other question we might have is why Larry Page would be so desperate to gain New Zealand residency. Surely he’s not thinking of uprooting and moving there, right? (Though there are probably more than a few Americans who would invite the Kiwis to keep him permanently.) More likely is the possibility that he has business deals pending in New Zealand and the inability to freely travel back and forth was cramping his style. With a residency visa, he will be more easily able to travel. But that’s just a guess. Sadly, neither Google nor Alphabet returned requests for comment.