Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire Facebook co-founder, has renounced his US citizenship in a bid to avoid millions of dollars in taxes.
Facebook is set to go public this week and Brazilian-born Saverin is likely to avoid a tax bill of $600million. He has lived in Singapore since 2009.
Although the move will put new pressure on President Obama to extend tax breaks for the wealthy, rather than allow them to expire as is currently planned, Saverin’s actions were widely condemned online. The Huffington Post claimed he owed America “nearly everything”.
Mr Saverin’s name appeared in a list published by on Friday by America’s Internal Revenue Service of people who had renounced their citizenship. A spoeksman for Saverin said that he made the change last September.
Mr Saverin was Facebook’s first chief financial officer but left the company after arguing with colleague Mark Zuckerberg.
The wealthy industrialist Saverin family fled their native Brazil for Miami in 1993 after Eduardo’s name appeared on a list of targets for gangs specialising in kidnap for ransom. Eduardo was granted US citizenship at the age of 18.
