Facebook founders lead the high-tech charge in avoiding taxes and laws of countries that protect and support them

[Emily]

Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship Before IPO

By Danielle Kucera, Sanat Vallikappen and Christine Harper on May 11, 2012

Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co- founder of Facebook Inc. (FB) (FB), renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill....

How Facebook's Elite Skirt Estate Tax

May 11, 2012, 4:30 p.m. ET

"I'm not surprised the Facebook insiders have chosen to use GRATs," says John Bergner, a gift-and-estate tax expert at the Winstead law firm in Dallas. He calls the strategy "an excellent way to shift wealth to others at little or no tax cost and with minimal legal and economic risk."

Start-ups jump on-board Silicon Valley ship

By Michael Lee, ZDNet.com.au on May 8th, 2012
Start-up Blueseed wants to launch a ship in the third quarter of 2013, or the first quarter of 2014 ? a ship that's capable of carrying 1000 entrepreneurs within 12 miles of California's coast. That's just out of reach of US jurisdiction, and places the Blueseed vessel in international waters....

Facebook investor Peter Thiel to fund rogue island nations

...Only time will tell how the seafaring social experiment will pan out, but with financial backers like Peter Thiel ? who recently created a fellowship that awards college students $100,000 to drop out and strike up startups ? there will be plenty of cash in the coffers when it comes time to hire a flotilla of lawyers.

US immigration: Silicon Valley start-up Blueseed vows freedom from visa to entrepreneurs

Rituparna Chatterjee, ET Bureau Dec 15, 2011, 07.32am IST
[snip]
Blueseed is working on building relationships in Washington DC with immigration-related government agencies such as the United States Citizen and Immigration Services ( USCIS). If these work out, immigration authorities at US airports would be informed in advance about the arrival of Blueseed entrepreneurs, who could then enter the country almost in quasi-diplomat style, unlike the masses.