The world's 10 wealthiest politicians
If you have been sickened by media mentions of Lord Mandelson's £2.4 million townhouse and £1 million European Union pay-off, consider that his wealth is nothing compared to the fortunes of really wealthy politicians. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger's hundreds of millions do not make our list...
1 Suleiman Kerimov - $17.5 billion
The far-right Russian senator from Dagestan struck it rich as a stakeholder in Gazprom, Russia's gas export company, and Sberbank, Eastern Europe's largest bank. Kerimov, 42, made news in 2006 when he was seriously injured after losing control of his Ferrari on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. His passenger, Playboy covergirl Tina Kandelaki, suffered minor injuries
2 Michael Bloomberg - $11.5 billion
The 66-year-old independent mayor of New York City made his billions from sales of stockmarket-tracking systems and later the Bloomberg newswire and related services after he was fired from Salomon Brothers, the investment bank, with a $10 million severance package in 1981. He has donated more than $1.4 billion to good causes and draws $1 a year for his work as mayor
3 Serge Dassault - $9.9 billion
The French aviation mogul is a member of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, a senator, and mayor of Corbeil-Essonnes in Paris. He inherited Groupe Dassault from his father Marcel, who was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944 for his refusal to collaborate with the Nazis. In 1998, Dassault Jr. was given a two-year suspended sentence for corruption in the Agusta scandal
4 Silvio Berlusconi - $9.4 billion
Italy's larger-than-life prime minister (pictured, above) is weathering the crunch well - reportedly purchasing a 30-room neo-classical villa on Lake Maggiore and doubling the size of his Villa San Martino outside Milan. The super-magnate, who owns much of the country's media and AC Milan football club, laid the foundations of his fortune as a property developer during the late 1960s
5 Aburizal Bakri - $9.2 billion
The chief welfare minister of Indonesia inherited control of the vast Bakrie Group from his father, a partisan of Suharto. He ran into controversy in 2006 when drilling by a Bakrie-controlled oil and gas outfit allegedly triggered a mudslide which displaced thousands. He has been branded the "national avatar of government by conflict of interest" in the Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
6 Rinat Akhmetov - $7.3 billion
A member of parliament for Ukraine's opposition, Rinat Akhmetov is also his country's wealthiest tycoon, with a massive coal and steel empire. Last year he founded the Foundation for Effective Governance to support economic development in Ukraine, counting Shimon Peres, the Nobel Laureate, and Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist, among speakers at its launch
7 Andrei Molchanov - $4 billion
The 37-year-old construction baron is a member of Russia's upper house and the adopted son of Yury Molchanov, deputy governor of St Petersburg - himself a former university colleague of Vladimir Putin. In 2005, Molchanov Jr.'s company LSR Group controversially demolished a fine 18th century barracks in St Petersburg, after it was quietly de-listed by the city authorities
8 Gleb Fetisov - $3.9 billion
The third Russian senator on our list built his fortune trading commodities in the vast Alfa Group and remains a stakeholder in Altimo, Alfa's telcoms holding company. The latter is set for "aggressive" expansion in developing markets in Asia, such as Iran and Afghanistan. Holding a doctorate in economics from Moscow State University, Fetisov maintains a low media profile
9 Kostyantin Zhevago - $3.4 billion
A member of Ukraine's parliament and aide to prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the 34-year-old oligarch began his career as finance director of the bank Finance & Credit at 19. He has since acquired a control of the latter's holding company and plans to take the bank public by 2010. Last week, Zhevago was forced to sell 20 per cent of his mining venture Ferrexpo to clear a loan from JP Morgan
10 Saad Hariri - $3.3 billion
The son and political heir of assassinated Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri leads the Future Movement parliamentary majority in Beirut and heads Saudi Oger, the family's Riyadh-based construction, banking and telecoms empire. The graduate of Georgetown University in Washington DC lives amid ultra-tight security and is said to enjoy Cuban cigars and scuba diving
EXTRA: Three super-rich politicians who don't make the list...
Arnold Schwarzenegger - $200 million-plus
Hank Paulson - $700 million-plus
John Kerry - $230 million-plus
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Wealth figures from The World's Billionaires, Forbes, 2008
I guess these are the legitimate rich politicians. why not a list of the corrupt ones too like the Bhutto and Gandhi families in S. Asia and the African politicians
Posted by: rhmayo | 17 Oct 2008 10:36:00
Excuse me while I go throw up.....
Posted by: Andy | 17 Oct 2008 23:17:03
Why is Bush not on this list? The Bush family must be worth billions.
Posted by: me | 18 Oct 2008 01:52:24
Isn't Abramovich also a senator or governor or something?
also, there are some persistent rumours that Putin has amassed a vast fortune.
Posted by: Nick | 18 Oct 2008 08:03:19
Are you sure of this list! In India itself, there are huge number of politicians, led by the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty, who are far richer than in the above list! Of course, their wealth are hidden and stacked in Swiss and other foreign banks and not declared as the above people!
Posted by: Mani | 18 Oct 2008 08:18:09
what no tony blair or the rest of nulabour? they all have a few million on the bank and in property as with most communists- make themselves rich and ensure the rest of us go without.no wonder we are in recession
Posted by: emily | 18 Oct 2008 08:52:26
There is surely a distiction to make between the politicians who made their money in business and then entered politics (good) and the polticians who made, or at least significantly advanced their fortunes after entering politics (bad - Silvio Burlusconi).
Posted by: Fred Newman | 19 Oct 2008 15:23:02
The world is a sad, bad place...
Posted by: Jane Knight | 19 Oct 2008 15:23:58
You have forgoten Behxhet Pacolli from Kosova, richest Albanian in the world and also candidate for president of Kosova.
Posted by: Dini | 19 Oct 2008 19:07:55
Yes, this list reminds us all about those who have. I agree, why isn't Tony Blair or George Bush not on this list? I suppose it will only go to show the reasons why our dear politicians are not in touch with 'ordinary people'. Extraordinary wealth!
Posted by: Ivor | 20 Oct 2008 14:58:08
Get a life, Bush is poor compared with these moguls. You have listened to the press blabber on about this. Have you heard about Nancy Pelosi's wealth? How about John Kerry? Or John Edwards? Or Bill Clinton's? Give me a break. Yeah, right, Senator Edwards is really in touch with the common man. All his talk about poverty. The elites love to manipulate the poor and make themselves look like rescuers. It's just sheer political manipulation. There's a book out about the generosity of politicians. They found out liberals are chintzy beyond belief. The democrat who wrote the book could not believe it. He ran the numbers again, and became an independent. Meanwhile, conservatives gave sacrificially. Wake up out of the media bias and get a life! Read Arthur C Brooks, "The Surprising Truth about who really cares."
Posted by: Nancy Weldon | 21 Oct 2008 17:02:13
Somebody said: I guess these are the legitimate rich politicians...
Are you kidding? Everybody knows in Italy that Berlusconi is a corrupt mafioso, and that he made his money not as a developer but as a drug dealer
Posted by: Giusi | 21 Oct 2008 18:29:34
Read 'The Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein if it tells U anything it is that the boys in power would sell their grandmother & yours for that matter to make a buck. The IMF & World Bank are just a bunch of Gangsters that manipulate the economy of poor countries & bleed them dry. From the recent 'oil shortage' now the 'financial crisis' - it is the same old same old & the working stiff gets it in the ear.
Posted by: McBrain | 22 Oct 2008 02:58:19
Read 'The Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein if it tells U anything it is that the boys in power would sell their grandmother & yours for that matter to make a buck. The IMF & World Bank are just a bunch of Gangsters that manipulate the economy of poor countries & bleed them dry. From the recent 'oil shortage' now the 'financial crisis' - it is the same old same old & the working stiff gets it in the ear. Politicians & corporations are one & the same entity.
Posted by: McBrain | 22 Oct 2008 03:29:58
@Dini: I very much doubt the author has "forgotten" your "richest Albanian in the world". He clearly didn't make the grade. Deal with it.
Posted by: No Bull | 22 Oct 2008 11:32:37
Guys, you are writing such nonsense about Berlusconi.Berlusconi is one of the very few politicians who made their money BEFORE becoming a politician. He was never a drug dealer ( as one claimed this here (!)but a well respected property developer and then he entered the private TV sector, at a time when no one even thought about that in Italy. He already gave work to 40.000 people before entering politics. Unlike many politicians, see Blair, Schroeder, Clinton, that clearly used their former premier/president status afterwards and became very wealthy with that. This is were the corruption is.And this should be regulated.
Posted by: Julia | 23 Oct 2008 10:11:10
There is no possible way you can be worth more than about $10M and still have good governing as your primary motivator. Anybody with a net worth more than about two standard deviations away from the mean should be banned from higher office. As for the politicians who have become billionaires during their career in government, find a lamppost and get some rope.
Posted by: Carl | 24 Oct 2008 11:27:29
You can be sure that all the Russians listed are thieves, bandits and killers because that's what Russians do. They are incapable of earning wealth legitimately.
Posted by: Draco | 24 Oct 2008 21:47:03
Marcel Dassault was called Bloch before the war and went to Buchenwald because he was jewish.
Posted by: delia | 25 Oct 2008 07:04:55
PERHAPS THE NEXT LIST SHOULD BE ABOUT THE LIST OF THE GET RICH QUICK BY RAIDING THE EXCHEQUER BY POLITICIANS AND LIVING IN EXILE ON THE BACK OF FAT. PEOPLE WHO CAN NOT BE ELECTED TO THE PARLIAENT BECAUSE OF THEIR CRIMINAL PAST BUT DO BECOME PRESIDENT NAMELY ZARDARIS OR IS HE A BHUTTO NOW BY PROXY. WEST'S FRIENDS.
Posted by: | 26 Oct 2008 13:53:22
Why is Vladimir Putin not on the list? Having lived in Moscow between 2002 and 2007 I can say that many Russians know that he has become exceptionally rich whilst hiding his wealth behind friends.
Posted by: Bethany Williamson | 26 Oct 2008 14:10:17
Many African dictators own their country. The Wealth of their nation is theirs. Nguema of Equitorial Guinea, Bongo of Gabon, Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville, Paul Biya of Cameroon are worth more than most people in that list. This is just to give you a few from Africa. I suppose there would be many such rich politicians in other emerging economies but their wealth cannot be fully accounted for as they are hidden in swiss and other european bank accounts.
Posted by: rexon | 16 Nov 2008 22:11:41
you missed out on lee kuan yew..he owned the whole island of Singapore
Posted by: jason | 14 Dec 2008 15:32:45
I've never been a supporter of Mr. Berlusconi but people should stop writing such non-sense as "he was a drug-dealer". He became a billionaire BEFORE becoming a politician (although many claim he already was politically connected) through developing a real estate and media empire.
Posted by: Anthony | 27 Dec 2008 10:59:04
How about UK's 10 wealthiest politicians?? Of much more interest!!
Posted by: Les | 28 Dec 2008 22:22:17