Eduardo Saverin

HONG KONG -- We read about famous people like French film star Gerard Depardieu, who moved to Belgium to avoid a 75 percent income tax on millionaires proposed by France's Socialist government (a measure rejected last week by a French council, though French leadership has vowed to resubmit a similar proposal). Then there is Eduardo Saverin, who took the extreme step of giving up his U.S. citizenship and could see a savings of $39 million on his Facebook investment, according to the research firm Wealth-X. He says business reasons, rather than high taxes, were his primary motivation.

I had read about financially motivated expatriates but never knew one who had taken the ultimate step until I visited with my longtime friend "Sam" (I'm withholding his real name to protect his current employment). Sam works for a large investment firm. He has lived here for the last 25 years.

On Thursday’s edition of his eponymous program, MSNBC afternoon anchor Martin Bashir continued his shtick of using vile language to attack people with whom he disagrees, wishing a co-founder of the Facebook social network to go "play with the traffic."

Bashir's death wish on Eduardo Saverin came at the end of a segment in which he criticized conservative activist Grover Norquist. Norquist, an advocate of lower taxes and tax reform, had sharply criticized an "exit tax" bill authored by Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer (N.Y.)  The senator churned up the legislation as a left-wing populist response to Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin for renouncing his American citizenship to avoid burdensome U.S. taxes.  Saverin lives in Singapore and plans to live and conduct business there for the foreseeable future, his attorney has told the press.  [Video follows page break]