Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney insists that he didn’t shut down his tax shelters in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Switzerland because it would “avoid the truth” and he wasn’t going to “manipulate my life” just to become president.

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Romney in an interview that aired on Sunday why he didn’t close the Swiss bank accounts and get out of the investments in the Cayman Islands before he spent the last eight years running for president.

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“First of all, there was no reduction — not one dollar reduction — in taxes by virtue of having an account in Switzerland or a Cayman Islands investment,” Romney explained. “The dollars of taxes remained exactly the same. There was no tax savings at all. And the conduct of the trustee and making investments was entirely consistent with U.S. law and all the taxes paid were those legally owed and there was no tax saving by virtue of those entities.”

“But why not just go to him a long time ago and just say, get out of these things?” Wallace pressed.

“Don’t invest in anything outside the United States?” Romney replied. “I mean, I could have said, ‘Don’t make any investments in any foreign companies, in any foreign bonds, in any foreign currency — only U.S. entities. And by the way, don’t buy any foreign products, don’t have any Japanese TVs or foreign cars.’ I mean, yeah, I could have done that.”

“But, I mean, I did live my life,” he continued. “And I expect by virtue of disclosing all these things, people can take a look at it and see whether that’s something they’re comfortable with or not. I’m not going to try and hide who I am and try and manipulate my life to try and avoid the truth.”

Watch this video from Fox News’ Fox News Sunday, broadcast Aug. 26, 2012.

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[Photo: Shutterstock.com/Maria Dryfhout]