Fini and Miller took the concept of "tax exemption" to the extreme and even took advantage of the law. Finney and Miller set up companies in Liechtenstein, Monaco and other places respectively, and used Swiss bank accounts to deposit profits in the names of Finney's French wife Danielle and Miller's Ecuadorian wife Jentar. Feny and Miller take advantage of the tax exemption regulations of different countries and regions, send them in different places, and take consumers around the tax department to find cheap and happiness.
Finney's "duty-free shopping chain" not only makes use of time and space differences to avoid taxes reasonably, but also tries to keep it secret to paralyze competitors. Fini said, "If you have a machine that can make money, you won't say,' Everyone imitates me.' "
Only 1988, Fini made a profit of $654.38+55 million.
Billionaires are arrogant, extravagant and eccentric. Fini has a gentle personality, and everything is normal except amazing frugality. Of course, as can be seen from the photos, the angry Fini showed unshakable willpower.
An unusually low-key "hermit" philanthropist
Chuck Fini is a reclusive philanthropist who keeps a low profile and deliberately remains anonymous. He founded the Atlantic Charity Foundation with $8 billion. In order to avoid the relevant provisions of American law on the disclosure of foundation information, the foundation went to Bermuda, far from the United States. The name of the foundation does not use the name of Chuck Fini or anyone related to him. He even asked the employees of the foundation not to tell their families where they work. According to his strict requirements, the donor agency can't even put a nameplate on him. Most of the beneficiaries of donations don't know the source of funds, and the insiders must sign a confidentiality agreement: if the relevant information is leaked, the funding will stop.
It was not until 1997 that Chuck Fini's "duty-free shopping chain" was acquired by Bernard arnold, a French luxury goods giant, that the public knew that Fini's shares in the company had been handed over to the Atlantic Charity Foundation, and the amount he donated actually exceeded the famous foundations established by MacArthur, Rockefeller and other families!
Since then, it has been impossible to remain anonymous, but Chuck Fini and the Atlantic Charity Foundation still try to keep a low profile, such as: not publishing donations specifically; Refuse to set all kinds of nameplates; Funded buildings cannot be named after him (it is said that this will attract other philanthropists who want to obtain naming rights to cooperate with Feni). In this regard, Fini said: "It doesn't matter who built the building, what matters is that the building can be built."
Donated university
Fini has donated $588 million to Cornell University, $65.438+25 billion to the University of California, $60 million to Stanford University, and $65.438+0 billion to transform and build seven universities in Ireland and two universities in Northern Ireland.
The poor life of billionaires
At present, the Atlantic Charity Foundation is "distributing wealth" at a rate of $400 million per year.
In Fini's view, there are too many people in need in this world, so the donation can't be delayed at all. He smiled and swore: "I can't spend all this money, and I can't die with my eyes closed."
Today, Fini left himself less than $654.38 +0 million. He has such a joke: "How to become a millionaire? You must become a billionaire first. " He described himself as a "philanthropist in rags", and his frugality was really surprising.
Fini invested in the construction of countless buildings. He once owned six luxury houses in French tourist resorts, high-end residential areas in London, England and new york Park Avenue. Now, there is not one left. He and his second wife, Herja, live in a rented one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco and usually travel by bus, subway or taxi.
Fini has accumulated nearly10 billion dollars of wealth by selling duty-free brand-name goods, but he never wears brand-name clothes. On some formal occasions, he wears a pair of worn glasses, which he bought from the street grocery store.
Fini's diet is very "civilian" He said, "You can go to a fancy restaurant and have a meal 100 dollars, but eating that $25 meal will satisfy me."
Fini has five children. During holidays, they all have to work in hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. When Finney's daughter Bailey was a teenager, she made a lot of long-distance calls for a while. When her father found the long telephone bill, he immediately cut off the telephone line and posted a city map at home, which marked the public telephones nearby.
The children are very much in favor of Fanny's anonymous "getting rich". Feeney's son Leslie said, "It makes us like ordinary people."
Get satisfaction from other people's smiles
One of Fini's many charitable projects is called "Operation Smile", which mainly supports children with cleft palate in developing countries to receive plastic surgery. Once, in the waiting room, he saw a girl who was about to undergo surgery. The girl covered her mouth with her hand, unable to conceal her excitement and expectation. "After the operation, she smiled as if to say,' I'm not the ugly one you saw before'." Fini said that at such times, he would feel that wealth is valuable.
Another time, in a restaurant, a man walked up to Fini and said, "You know, I accepted your scholarship ... I am now the general manager of this chain restaurant." This made Fini very happy.
Fini is proficient in French and Japanese. She likes to travel around the world and choose her own charity projects. The donation scope of Atlantic Charity Foundation has already exceeded national boundaries, such as providing traffic safety fund for school-age children in Vietnam, providing expenses for cancer research in Australia, and providing plastic surgery for children with facial paralysis in the Philippines. Fini said: "People are used to making money, and becoming rich is very attractive to most people. I didn't tell people what to do. I just believe that if people can contribute to public welfare, they will get great satisfaction from it. "
It is said that many billionaires, such as Bill Gates and Buffett, regard him as a model of charity and set up their own charitable foundations. It can be said that Chuck Fini is a good teacher for the rich to learn how to do charity.