Jeff Bezos sold 2.0m shares for $4.1bn last week

Jeff Bezos sold 2.0m shares worth $4.1bn in the internet retail giant that he founded, Amazon.com, via a pre-arranged trading plan that lasted seven days.

The transaction, which took place from 31 January to 6 February, was the largest seven-day selldown by any billionaire executive tracked by Bloomberg going back to 2012, according to the same newswire.

Bezos's divestiture amounted to less than 4% of his Amazon holdings, which as of 7 February were valued at roughly $116bn .

Divorce lawyers cited by Bloomberg said the increased pace of sales this year might be linked to his 2019 divorce with MacKenzie Bezos.

The divorce implied that all assets and debt acquired during a marriage “will be divided equitably by the court if the couple cannot negotiate an agreement.”

Publicly disclosed information show that Jeff Bezos retained 75% of the couple’s stake in Amazon as well as interests in the Washington Post newspaper and rocket company Blue Origin.

But in exchange, the executive may have agreed to a cash payment.

Bezos has also previously said he’s selling about $1.0bn of Amazon stock a year to fund his space exploration company, Blue Origin.