They’ve got it and then some…
Good year for billionaires
THE FIVE RICHEST AMERICANS
Bill Gates, 47, Microsoft $46 billion
Warren Buffett, 73, Berkshire Hathaway $36 billion
Paul Allen, 50, Microsoft $22 billion
Helen Walton, 84, Wal-Mart $20.5 billion
Robson Walton, 58, Wal Mart $20.5 billion
THE FIVE RICHEST NEW YORKERS
Samuel Newhouse Jr., 74 $7.7 billion
Carl Icahn, 67 $7.3 billion
Rupert Murdoch $7.2 billion
George Soros, 73 $7 billion
Michael Bloomberg, 61 $4.9 billion
By Owen Moritz – Daily News Staff Writer
Donald Trump is no Bill Gates. Neither is Oprah Winfrey or Leona Helmsley. But the Donald, Oprah and Leona all padded their bankrolls last year – shooting their way up the latest Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. The usual suspects were at the top of the list released yesterday, headed by Gates, who wealth is estimated at $46 billion. Investor Warren Buffett’s $36 billion was good for No. 2 followed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen worth $22 billion. Then came the Waltons – the widow and four children of Wal-Mart patriarch Sam Walton – worth a collective $102.5 billion. Were Walton, who died in 1992, still alive, his health would be twice that of Gates, Forbes said. But hitting No. 71 with a bullet was Trump and his $2.5 billion.
The Donald’s control of over 18 million square feet of prime space in the city, over-shadowing his stagnant Atlantic City casino showings, put him on the fast track. Trump, 57, had worth of $1.9 billion last year and a No. 92 ranking. Nonetheless, he complained that the magazine had lowballed his wealth. “It’s low,” he told Forbes, “but you guys like it that way.” Helmsley, 82, whose wealth jumped to $2.3 billion from $1.9 billion was ranked one of the nation’s 50 wealthiest women. TV queen Winfrey, 49, who increased her fortune by 20% by adding the “Dr. Phil” show to her growing empire, exceeded $1.1 billion for the first time.
Mayor Bloomberg made the list at No. 36 with a fortune of $4.9 billion, up slightly from lat year’s $4.9 billion, up slightly from last year’s $4.8 billion estimate. But the 61- year-old mayor feel from No. 29 last year. According to his tax return, Bloomberg lost at leat $1 million in the stock market. The losses came after the city’s Conflict of Interest Board advised him to sell off some$45 million in stocks of companies that do business with the city and transfer the money into mutual funds.
Company man Forbes said: “Mayor tries to manage the Big Apple like his company, but oters – and angry smokers – are much harder to appease than employees.”
Other wealthy New Yorkers of note: Ruper Murdoch, $7.2 billion; George Soros, $7 billion; Ronald Perelman; $3.5 billion; Ralph Lauren, $2.3 billion; perennial gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano, $1.6 billion; Sandy Weill, $1.4 billion, and Daily News Chairman and Co-Publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman, $1.2 billion.
One decade-long trend, Forbes wrote, is the movement of wealth from New York to California. The magazine said that while 47 of the top 400 were New Yorkers, California claimed 95 billionaires. When the list was first published in 1982, New York boasted 81 names, compared with California’s 56.
