According
to latest reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been suggested
to be the richest man in the world, displacing Bill Gates and Jeff
Bezos.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
Vladimir Putin: said to be worth over $200b
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates were
metaphorically sparring for the title of world’s richest individual last
week, but the true leader might actually be Vladimir Putin.
Bill Browder, a US financier, reportedly told senators last week
that the Russian President is richer than both Mr Bezos and Mr Gates
combined.
According to Newsweek, the chief executive officer of Hermitage
Capital Management said that he thinks Mr Putin is worth $200bn.
Newsweek said that Mr Browder’s company was once the largest
portfolio investor in Russia and that Mr Browder was a shareholder in
Gazprom, Surgutneftegas and other Russian state-run enterprises in the
1990s.
Around that time Putin reportedly made a deal with Russian businessmen that made him the “richest man in the world”.
Mr Putin’s personal fortune has been the subject of intense debate
and speculation in recent years. Newsweek reports that, according to Mr
Putin's official asset form – a mandatory public disclosure for all
Russian government officials – he earns $133,000 a year and has a modest
apartment in Moscow.
Last week Mr Bezos briefly became the world’s richest person as a
result of a surge in Amazon’s share price ahead of the e-retail giant’s
quarterly earnings report. Shares later tailed off again, however,
putting Mr Gates back in the top spot. Mr Bezos owns around 17 per cent
of Amazon’s shares.
Both Mr Bezos and Mr Gates are worth more than $90bn according to
Bloomberg data, with the latter occupying the top spot since 2013.
Mr Gates was also named the world’s richest person in this year’s
Forbes ranking. That publication in March estimated his wealth to be
around $86bn, ahead of second-placed Berkshire Hathaway chief executive
Warren Buffett, whose fortune was cited to be around $75.6bn.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
No comments:
Post a Comment