Denise Rich, the wealthy songwriter turned socialite, has renounced her U.S. citizenship in a move that is expected to save her tens of millions of dollars in taxes, Reuters reported Monday.
Denise Rich’s ex-husband Marc Rich, a billionaire one-time fugitive, was made famous by an oil trading scandal and charges that he evaded U.S. taxes. He received a pardon from President Bill Clinton on his last day in office.
Federal prosecutors and Congress investigated the pardon, and in 2002 a House of Representatives committee concluded Denise Rich had swayed the action through donations to the Clinton presidential library and campaign.
According to the Federal Election Commission, Denise contributed $105,000 to the Democratic National Committee in 1998 and also supported Hillary Clinton’s run for Senate in 1999.
Now, she joins nearly 1,800 citizens and permanent residents who expatriated last year, a record high since data was first compiled in 1998.
Michael Heidt, a Florida lawyer who represented Rich in a recent lawsuit, said that Rich renounced her U.S. passport “so that she can be closer to her family and to Peter Cervinka, her long-time partner.”
Rich has Australian citizenship through her deceased father, but apparently intends to make London her home.