AFTER years of eluding the Press, the founder of a Bermuda-based charitable institute, reported to be one of the wealthiest people in the world, is finally going on the record with his incredible story.

In the 1980s, Forbes listed Chuck Feeney as one of America's richest men. However, by then the New Jersey native had already transferred his vast fortune, in its totality ¿ and in secret ¿ to a charitable foundation he established in Bermuda for a unique philanthropic venture.

To date, Atlantic Philanthropies has given $458 million in grants around the world, more than any US charity except two ¿ the Ford and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations. The 76 year old (pictured) plans to give away the remaining $4 billion over the next decade.

In order to set up a foundation in Bermuda, Mr. Feeney needed to be a resident on the island for a year. So in 1978, with the help of local banker Cummings Zuill he bought a large villa and that summer moved his entire family here.

Bermuda was chosen because the island imposed no direct taxes on personal or corporate income, did not levy taxes on charities or foundations and did not require public disclosure of foundations.

At that stage Mr. Feeney's company, General Atlantic Group Ltd., was already registered in Bermuda with a little office on Washington Mall in Hamilton. He made his millions in shipping and later co-founded the first chain of duty-free ships in the Asia-Pacific market in the 1960s.

What makes Atlantic Philanthropies different from any other charitable foundation is that it does not accept proposals, but finds its own projects.

Over the last 20 years it has made grants to Aids clinics in South Africa, educated Vietnamese children on traffic safety, acted as advocates on behalf of Bronx home health workers, and helped pay for Cuban medical care. It also paid for waste-water treatment in Danang, Vietnam, cancer research in Australia and plastic surgery for children with facial deformities in the Philippines.

Even though he has managed to elude the Press for decades, Mr. Feeney recently decided to work with biographer and journalist Conor O'Clery, whose book, The Billionaire Who Wasn't, is being published by Public Affairs.

According to Mr. O'Clery, Mr. Feeney's life makes a compelling saga; a fortune built on consumption by a man who is defiantly indifferent to it; what business tycoon Donald Trump would be if he led his life backwards. Mr. Feeney buys clothes off the rack. He owns no homes, but stays in apartments around the world rented by his foundation. He flies coach. He rides the subway or takes cabs.

"A lot of wealthy people, they don't realise they have the alternatives of spending the money for good," Mr. Feeney told The New York Times recently. "If they knew it gives so much satisfaction, I wouldn't have to persuade them."