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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2002/09/24/cnforb24.xml&sSheet=/portal/2002/09/24/ixport.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=29880http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2002/09/24/cnforb24.xml&sSheet=/portal/2002/09/24/ixport.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=29880
Fortunes change as Forbes names 400
By Simon English in New York (Filed: 24/09/2002)
Bill Gates has lost $42 billion (£28 billion) in the past three years and $11 billion in the past 12 months alone.
However, neither calamity is enough to knock him from the peak of Forbes Magazine's annual list of the 400 richest Americans.
The 46-year-old Microsoft mogul has been top every year since 1994 - when he overtook investment genius Warren Buffett - but the collapse of the technology boom has forced his fortune down to $43 billion. Mr Buffett is on his last $36 billion, though neither man cares for the publicity.
This year is the 20th anniversary of a list that has always sparked controversy and irritation in equal measures. The rich and powerful have long seen Forbes's investigations as an intrusion into their privacy and an enticement to kidnappers, robbers and litigants.
Scores of lawsuits have been threatened, but only one delivered - from oilman Kenneth Davis in 1983. The judge threw out his claim, noting that the Forbes 400 revealed people of immense influence, and that "the American public has a right to know who they are".
Mr Davis fell off the list anyway in 1985, when a family business went bankrupt.
Although critics have attacked the list as a celebration of capitalism's worst excesses, it shows that the super-rich club has a high turnover rate. Only 58 names have made it on to the list every year, indicating that there is no "permanent aristocracy" according to Forbes.
Dropouts this year include AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case and cooking celebrity Martha Stewart, whose wealth has tumbled thanks to an unresolved insider trading scandal that tarnished her previously spotless reputation.
Forbes has never been afraid of including the scandalously rich in its rankings, such as cocaine lord Pablo Escobar. This year Alfred Taubman, the former Sotheby's chairman found guilty of price fixing art auctions, joins those whose wealth failed to keep them out of jail.
In a year of financial scandal, many of the most notorious corporate leaders such as WorldCom's Bernie Ebbers and Global Crossing's Gary Winnick make the cut despite the cloud over their reputations.
Gold diggers should be advised that the vast majority of the 400 are married - many more than once. At number three is Paul Allen of Microsoft, who is 49, single, interested in computers and basketball, and $21 billion in the black. Collectively, the 400 lost $283 billion in the past year, largely thanks to the plunging stock market.
They may be relieved to hear that many of life's essentials are also cheaper. Forbes's Cost of Living Extremely Well Index shows that a case of Dom Perignon is down 5pc to $1,400 and a thoroughbred horse can now be picked up for $487,000, a third less than a year ago.
The source of the wealth is spread across industries, with 14pc from the media, 11pc from finance, 7pc from real estate and 7pc from oil and gas. Inherited money plays at least a part in 151 members of the rich list, including the Walton family, who occupy joint fourth place.
Helen, S Robson, John T, Jim C and Alice L Walton are worth $18.8 billion each thanks to a combined 38pc stake in Wal-Mart, the supermarket giant founded by Sam Walton.
The list is limited to 400 after famed social arbiter Mrs William B Astor, who would invite only 400 of the highest of high society to her balls on Fifth Avenue in New York.
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