Chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has been named as the only black person on Forbes’ ‘The World’s Most Powerful People’ list.
The billionaire moved up 2 spaces from 68 in 2017 to 66, with the only other black person in the list the previous year Barack Obama absent this year.
The list is headed this year by Chinese President Xi Jinping, after the country amended its constitution, granting him the opportunity to rule for life.
Jinping bumped Russian President Vladimir Putin off the top spot, which he had occupied for 4 years.
US President Donald Trump falls to the 3rd spot, right in front of the world’s most powerful woman, Angela Merkel.
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud makes his debut on the list at number 8, with North Korean leaser Kim Jong-un at number 36.
You can see the full list HERE
While many questions around how existing securities law apply to initial coin offerings remain unanswered, the Securities and Exchange Commission has always made one thing clear: do not engage in fraud.
On Monday, its new Cyber Unit, created in September to, among other things, regulate ICOs, took its first action, against PlexCoin, which promised investors a more than 13x return within a month.
It obtained an emergency asset freeze against Dominic Lacroix, whom it called a "recidivist Quebec securities law violator," his partner Sabrina Paradis-Royer and PlexCorps. It also filed charges against LaCroix and PlexCorps alleging that they sold securities claiming investments in PlexCoin would bring profits of 1,354% profit in less than 29 days.
Since August, PlexCoin had raised $15 million from investors both in the U.S. and beyond. According to Coinmarketcap, the price plunged from 15 cents Sunday to as low as 5 cents Monday.
"This first Cyber Unit case hits all of the characteristics of a full-fledged cyber scam and is exactly the kind of misconduct the unit will be pursuing," said Robert Cohen, Cyber Unit chief, in a statement. "We acted quickly to protect retail investors from this initial coin offering's false promises."
Longtime players in the crypto space view the action positively. The ease with which a team could raise a staggering amount of money through an ICO began to draw unsavory characters who preyed upon everyday investors with a fear of missing out on the next Bitcoin or Ethereum but little understanding of the technology.
The amount of money raised in ICOs in 2017 is about $3.5 billion, compared to $295 million in all previous years combined, according to CoinDesk.
"Many token sales are outright securities fraud that differ little from a typical pyramid or Ponzi scheme," said Peter Van Valkenburgh, research director for blockchain advocacy Coin Center, which has been at the forefront of contending with how the technology interacts with existing legal frameworks. "We're happy to see the SEC carefully separating the wheat from the chaff with respect to these ICOs, investigating and putting a stop to predatory offers that promise exorbitant returns and guarantee investors won't lose money."
The SEC's action against PlexCorps is yet another sign the commission intends to fulfill its mission to protect investors in this new area of finance. In July, it released a report stating that DAO tokens, a type of crypto token that are now defunct, fit the hallmarks of a security but stated that each determination would be based on the facts and circumstances of the offering.
Since then, the agency has warned investors against throwing money into ICOs promoted by celebrities potentially unlawfully and publicly listed companies that touted involvement with cryptocurrency or ICOs to lure investors to their stocks.
Bitcoin’s recent spike above $6000 USD has elevated the estimated value of Satoshi Nakamoto’s holdings to more than $6 billion USD, qualifying the anonymous creator of bitcoin for Forbes’ list of richest individuals. At current bitcoin prices, Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated 1,000,000 bitcoins would place bitcoin’s founder at number 237 on Forbes’ list.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin Stash Is Worth Approximately $5.978 Billion USD
The value of Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated 1,000,000 bitcoins would place the anonymous creator on Forbes’ list of wealthiest individuals. Based on the estimated value of Satoshi’s holdings, which at the time of writing is approximately $6.1 billion USD, Nakamoto would be ranked number 237 on Forbes’ list.
Satoshi would be tied for 237th with South African business tycoon Johann Rupert, and Swedish heir and businessman Jorn Rausing. Nakamoto would be ranked higher than Alibaba’s Joseph Tsai, Australian mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forest, and Walmart heiress Ann Walkton Kroenke.
Satoshi is estimated to own approximately 5.89% of the more than 16.6 million bitcoins that are currently in circulation. The largest single bitcoin wallet is Bitfinex’s cold storage wallet, which currently holds over 168,000 bitcoins, or 1% of the total supply. The largest bitcoin wallet was previously owned by the U.S. government, after the FBI seized 144,336 bitcoins from anonymous free market The Silk Road.
With Prices Above $6000 USD, the Total Market Capitalization of Bitcoin Has Surpassed $100 Billion USD
At the time of writing, Bitcoin boasts a market cap of approximately $102 billion USD. If bitcoin were a company, it would be the 73rd largest by market cap, ranking higher than Goldman Sachs, China Petroleum & Chemical, and Bayer.
Whilst bitcoin’s total market capitalization has grown by more than 8% since October 15, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has contracted by approximately 1% – having fallen from $175.2 billion USD to $173.4 billion USD during the same period.
This decline in the market capitalization of all cryptocurrency markets indicates that bitcoin is regaining its market dominance relative to altcoins, with bitcoin currently accounting for more than 59.1% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization – compared to 54.4% on October 15.
This regained market dominance may have been caused by traders shifting their capital into bitcoin following bitcoin’s establishment of new all-time highs above the preceding resistance of $5000 USD.
Forbes has released the list of the world highest paid artistes for 2017. It named United States, US, rapper and singer Sean Combs also known as PDiddy as the highest earning artist for 2017, following his income from Ciroc vodka, DeLeon tequila and Aquahydrate water.
PDiddy also made a lot of money from his Bad Boy Reunion Tour, and an estimated $70 million sale of his Sean John clothing line. Forbes disclosed that PDiddy made an estimated pre-tax earnings of a whopping $130 million so far in 2017.
The website also named Drakes, whose Boy Meets World tour and deals with Apple, Sprite and Nike earned him an estimated $94 million as the next highest earned artiste.
Forbes said JAY-Z could have ranked higher, if his new deal with Live Nation, which is expected to bring him $200m over the next decade, was done in time.
But the release of a commercially successful album saw him make $42 million in the past year.
Others who made the Forbes list include, Dr Dre and new entrants like Chance the Rapper and Kendrick Lamar.
The report said the top artistes so far in 2017 earned a total of $619.5 million, an increment from last year’s $448.5 million.
See list of the artistes:
Sean “Diddy” Combs – $130 million.
Drake – $94 million.
JAY-Z – $42 million.
Dr. Dre – $34.5 million.
Chance the Rapper – $32 million.
Kendrick Lamar – $30 million.
Wiz Khalifa – $28 million.
Pitbull – $27 million.
DJ Khaled – $24 million.
Future – $23 million.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos was the world’s richest person for less than a day [SEE HERE], as Bill Gates reclaimed the top stop within 8 hours. This was after Amazon weak earnings pushed the company stocks lower on Thursday.
Amazon said its net income declined to $197 million in the second quarter, from $857 million the same period last year, marking a massive 77 percent decline.
Revenue rose 25 percent to $38 billion from $30.4 billion, but that was not enough for Bezos to retain his title. The e-commerce giant stock price plunged 3.2 percent to as low as $1,020 per share in after-hours trading, after they closed the day at $1,046 a share.
Bezos, who owns 17 percent of Amazon stocks, saw his net worth falling to $88.7 billion, according to Forbes’ World’s Billionaires Real Time Ranking.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates regained his title of world’s richest person with $89.8 billion of net worth, the ranking showed.
Amazon is still the world’s fourth biggest firm by market capitalization behind Microsoft, while Facebook is closing on the e-commerce giant.
In fact, Facebook may surpass Amazon in market value if the latter’s shares continue to decline on Friday due to weak earnings, according to analysts.
CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos has become the richest person in the world after stocks of his company rose 1.6%. According to Forbes report on Wednesday night, Bezos was less than $1bn away from being the richest person in the world.
Bezos’ net-worth has increased by $2.5bn this week alone, stocks of his company rising 3.6%. He is now worth $90.6bn, becoming the first man ever to top a $90 billion fortune for the first time.
He is worth more than $500m ahead of no. 2 Bill Gates, who is the founder of Microsoft. Bezos quit his job at a hedge fund to start his online bookseller in a garage in Seattle in 1994.
He first featured on the 400 richest Americans list in 1998, a year after Amazon went public, with a $1.6 billion fortune.
Gates’ first inclusion in the billionaire’s list was in 1982, and has been no. 1 for 18 of the past 23 years.
Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, Nigeria’s former Education Minister and convener of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign will feature in the first episode of Forbes Woman Africa empowerment TV show – Against The Odds.
The show depicts the journey of some of the most influential women in West and South Africa who have achieved remarkable feats whiles defying the odds.
The highly anticipated women empowerment show, titled: “Against The Odds’’ with Peace Hyde, is set to premier on Friday June 30, on CNBC Africa Channel 410 on DSTV.
A statement by Forbes Woman Africa said that Ezekwesili “talks about her harrowing experience in fighting corruption in Nigeria from her early days as the co-founder of Transparency International to the shock and horror of finding out about the abduction of over 270 girls in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria.’’
Ezekwesili started off in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration as the Pioneer head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (aka Due Process Unit).
It was in this position that she earned the sobriquet of “Madam Due Process” for the outstanding work she led a team of professionals to do in sanitising public procurement or contracting at the Federal level in Nigeria.
She was the architect of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) legislation, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) legislation and the new Minerals and Mining legislation during her six and a half years stint in government.
She was appointed Minister of Solid Minerals (Mines and Steel) in June 2005 during which time she led a vibrant reform program that led to Nigeria’s global recognition as a credible mining investment destination.
She was also the Chairperson of NEITI and led the first ever national implementation of the global standards and principles of transparency in the oil, gas and mining sector.
In June 2006, Ezekwesili was appointed the Federal Minister of Education, holding this post until she took up her World Bank appointment in May 2007
In March 2007, World Bank President (at the time) Paul Wolfowitz announced the appointment of Ezekwesili as Vice-President for the Africa Region starting on 1 May 2007.
As VP, she was in charge of the bank’s operations in 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and supervised a lending portfolio of over $40 billion.
She was a co-founder of Transparency International and served as one of its pioneer directors.
As a senior economic advisor for Open Society, a group founded by billionaire George Soros, she advises nine reform-committed African heads of state including Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.
On 1 October 2012, one of the world’s leading telecommunications firm, Bharti Airtel, with operations in 20 countries, named Ezekwesili as a director on its board.
She is also on the boards of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the School of Public Policy of Central European University, The Harold Hartog School of Government and Policy, New African Magazine, The Center for Global Leadership @ Tufts University.
In May 2012, Ezekwesili was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (DSC) degree by the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta in Nigeria.
She was selected as one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2014.
In March 2014, she delivered a keynote speech at the national summit of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the leading opposition party in Nigeria at the time.
She criticised the many migrating governors and urged the party to have “a conversation deeper than how you’re going to chase (the ruling) PDP out of power”.
In the aftermath of the nearly 300 mainly Christian girls were abducted from Chibok by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
Ezekwesili was instrumental to the start of the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign on social media, which trended internationally.
She had on 23 April, at the opening ceremony for a UNESCO event honouring the city of Port Harcourt as the 2014 World Book Capital city, urged Nigerians to not just tweet but actively participate in efforts to “bring back our girls”.
In the list of five richest kings in Africa published hours ago, the Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom, HRM Frederick Obateru Akinruntan was named the richest monarch in Nigeria and the second richest in Africa.
Moroccan Monarch, King Mohammed VI, is the richest in Africa with estimated net worth of $2 billion; second-placed Oba Akinruntan was rated to have an estimated net worth of $300 million, while the former Ooni of Ife, late Oba Sijuade is third with estimated net worth of $75 million.
Oba Akinruntan who beat the likes of the Alaafin of Oyo, the Sultan of Sokoto, the Ooni of Ife and other to emerge the wealthiest monarch, is the Olugbo (traditional King) of Ugbo land, a small oil-rich community in Ondo state, in Nigeria’s southwestern region.
Oba Akinrutan, who ascended the throne in 2009, is also the founder of Obat Oil, one of Nigeria’s largest privately-held oil trading companies.
He founded the company in 1981 with a single gas station to meet the needs of his family and neighboring community. OBAT Oil now owns more than 50 gas stations across Nigeria as well as one of the largest tank farms in Africa- a modern storage facility that has the capacity to store 65 million liters of petroleum products.
He also owns an extensive portfolio of prime commercial and residential real estate in London and Nigeria, including the landmark Febson Hotels and Mall in the Central Business District of Abuja.
Oba Akinrutan entered the history books in 2012 when he became the first black person to buy the 2014 model of Bentley which was accustomed only for Queen Elizabeth of England.
Forbes Afrique dives into the world of the Business of Luxury in Africa, a business Forbes describes as a billion dollar industry in Africa, with Jennifer Obayuwana as the cover star.
In West Africa, that market is ruled by Polo Limited, a 30 year old business responsible for the proliferation of luxury goods. With locations in Nigeria and Ghana, Polo Luxury is at the forefront of luxury sales in West Africa. Despite the economic outlook in Nigeria, this is an industry that has maintained consistency in the African Sector.
The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; and Chairman of Globacom, Dr. Mike Adenuga, saw their net worth declined by $3.2bn and $4.2bn, respectively in the past year, according to Forbes 2017 World’s Billionaires list.
Dangote retained his position as Africa’s richest person in the latest ranking, with a fortune of $12.2bn, although he was ranked 105th as against 51st last year.
The Chairman of Forte Oil, Mr. Femi Otedola; and the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, were missing on the list. They were worth $1.8bn and $1.1bn, respectively last year.
In 2015, Otedola re-joined the list of African billionaires after a five-year hiatus, with a $1bn fortune.
The net worth of the Founder and Executive Chairman, Famfa Oil Limited, Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, was unchanged at $1.6bn, coming in the 1,315th position, down from 1,121st last year.
This year, the number of billionaires jumped by 13 per cent to 2,043 from 1,810 in 2016, the first time ever that Forbes has pinned down more than 2,000 10-figure-fortunes.
Their total net worth rose by 18 per cent to a record $7.67tn, with the increase in the number of billionaires described as the biggest in the 31 years that Forbes has been tracking billionaires globally.
Bill Gates is the number one richest for the fourth year in a row, and the richest person in the world for 18 out of the past 23 years. He has a fortune of $86bn, up from $75bn last year.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos had the best year of any person on the planet, adding $27.6bn to his fortune, and is now worth $72.8bn, moving into the top three in the world for the first time, up from number five a year ago.
Warren Buffett had the second-best year, and the biggest gain since Donald Trump was elected United States President in November 2016. His $14.8bn jump in 12 months was enough for him to grab back the number two spot from Amancio Ortega, founder of Spanish clothing chain, Zara.
Ortega’s fortune was up by $4.3bn since last year, but he still fell to fourth in the world, unable to keep up with the outsize gains of others.
The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, moved up to number five for the first time, after his fortune rose by $11.4bn in 12 months.
Carlos Slim of Mexico fell to number six, the first time he’s been out of the top five in a dozen years.
President Trump saw his net worth decline by $1bn to $3.5bn. His position on the Forbes’ ranking dropping 220 spots, leaving him tied with 19 others as the 544th richest person in the world.
There were 195 newcomers, including 26-year-old John Collison, who is now the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, just two months younger than Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel.
There are 56 billionaires under age 40, down from 66 last year, after some aged out and others dropped below the $1bn mark.
The Forbes billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth taken on February 17, and stock prices and exchange rates from around the world were used to calculate their net worth.
A wide range of Twitter accounts – businesses and media outlets, celebrities – appeared to have been hacked with the same message. Some of the affected accounts are Forbes, BBC North America, World Meteorological Organization, bitcoin wallet Blockchain, German soccer club Borussia Dortmund, U-Haul, tennis star Boris Becker, Justin Bieber‘s Japanese account and the Atlanta Police Department.
According to a series of tweets by Arjun Kharpal, a CNBC Correspondent, these accounts were branded with the Turkish flag and nationalist pro-Turkish messages.
One tweet showed comments Swastika and Turkish hashtag which when translated meant “Nazi Germany” and “Nazi Holland.” Some of the tweets linked to a video of Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan which appears to be in support of him. It also mentions the date of April 16, which is when Turkey will hold a referendum seeking to give more power to the President.
Last week, Erdogan branded the Dutch government “Nazi remnants and fascists” after a Turkish minister was blocked from visiting the country’s consulate in Rotterdam. Erdogan responded by warning the Netherlands it would “pay the price” for its actions.
However, many of the hacked accounts have taken back control almost immediately.
Photo Credit: Twitter – @ArjunKharpal
It is true that some billionaires are born into wealth while others hustle their way to the top, but The Third Richest Man in the World Warren Buffett is a poster child for the hustlers.
Before the "Oracle of Omaha" earned an average of $2 million a day , he was a scrappy kid working schemes to earn $5,000, or what would be $53,000 today. He stashed the fortune away in his sock drawer.
Alice Schroeder's 2008 biography, "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," chronicles how these efforts established his money-making mentality long before his net worth swelled to $74 billion.
From that telling, here are the young Buffett's best side hustles.
SELLING GUM AND COCA-COLA
At just 6 years old, Buffett earned his first few cents selling sticks of gum in the neighborhood. He carted Juicy Fruit, Spearmint and Doublemint around on a tray and sold them in packs of five for a nickel. When a woman asked for just one stick, little Buffett refused.
"We don't break up packs of gum — I mean, I've got my principles. I still, to this day, remember Mrs. Macoubrie saying she wanted one stick. They were a nickel and she wanted to spend a penny with me," he tells Schroeder.
But Buffett found the margins to be better selling Coca-Cola door to door in the summer, even at the lake when his family vacationed in Iowa.
DELIVERING THE PAPER
At 13, Buffett took what could have been a mind-numbing job as a paper boy and turned it into a competition with himself. With his father representing a Nebraska district in Congress, Buffett woke up at 4:30 in the morning to deliver copies of The Washington Post, and he challenged himself to find ways to serve each of his five buildings faster.
Then he found ways to track when the houses along his route had magazine subscriptions expiring and sold new subscriptions on the side, along with calendars.
By 15, Buffett had made $2,000 delivering papers. He invested $1,200 of that in a 40-acre farm where he had a profit-sharing agreement with a Nebraskan farmer.
STARTING A COMPANY
After he earned enough money working for other people's companies, Buffett began his own. His first was Buffett's Used Golf Balls. He bought refurbished balls from a man in Chicago at $3.50 a dozen and turned them around for $6.
"He probably got them the way we first tried to get them, out of water traps, only he was better," Buffett tells Schroeder.
SCAVENGING 'LOSING' TICKETS AT THE TRACK
While Buffett was still a kid in Omaha, a friend's mother introduced him to betting at Ak-Sar-Ben, a local horse track. While he was too young to gamble, he wasn't too young to make money on what other people carelessly threw away.
"They call that 'stooping,'" Buffett explains, noting that novices were placing bets at the beginning of racing season. "And they'd think that if your horse came in second or third, you didn't get paid, because all the emphasis is on the winner, so they'd throw away place and show tickets."
He and his friend scoured the stands for discarded tickets amidst the cigarette butts, spilled beer and food scraps.
"It was awful; people would spit on the floor. But we had great fun. If I found any winning tickets, my Aunt Alice would cash them in for us, because they wouldn't cash them for kids."
Eventually, he got his high school golf coach to drive him to some local races where he'd make bets after analyzing race statistics. Once he went alone and bet every race only to continue losing as his emotions got the best of him.
"I'd committed the worst sin, which is that you get behind and think you've got to break even that day," Buffett tells Schroeder. "It was the last time I ever did anything like that."
SELLING STAMPS TO COLLECTORS
He set up Buffett's Approval Service, which sold sets of collectible stamps to collectors who lived out of state.
BUFFING CARS
With the help of a friend, he set up Buffett's Showroom Shine, a car-shining business the two young men ran out of his friend's dad's used-car lot. Business turned out to be more trouble than it was worth, however.
Schroeder notes it was abandoned "because it involved manual labor and turned out to be too damn much work."
SETTING UP PINBALL MACHINES IN BARBER SHOPS
When Buffett was 17, he told a friend about an idea with massive potential.
"'I bought this old pinball machine for $25 and we can have a partnership,'" Buffett says in Schroeder's retelling. His friend's side of the deal was to fix it up. Buffett, meanwhile, took care of making the pitch to barbers to let them put the machines in the waiting area in exchange for half the profits.
He claimed to be a representative of the nonexistent "Mr. Wilson's Coin Operated Machine Company."
The idea was a huge success, bringing in $4 in its first night and thrilling the barber. After a week, Buffett walked away with $25 and reinvested it into another machine. He continued until there were seven or eight "Mr. Wilson's machines" making him money around town.
Investing legend Warren Buffett has an estimated net worth of $74 billion, making him the third richest man in the world. But you'd never know it from his lifestyle. The 86-year-old billionaire still lives in the five-bedroom home in Omaha, Nebraska, that he bought in 1958 for $31,500 . And he never spends more than $3.17 on breakfast.
On his five-minute drive to the office, which he's been doing for the past 54 years, Buffett stops by McDonald's and orders one of three items.
"I tell my wife, as I shave in the morning, I say, 'Either $2.61, $2.95, or $3.17.' And she puts that amount in the little cup by me here [in the car]," he explains in HBO's documentary, "Becoming Warren Buffett," which debuted Monday.
Each amount corresponds with a different option at McDonald's.
"When I'm not feeling quite so prosperous, I might go with the $2.61, which is two sausage patties, and then I put them together and pour myself a Coke," he tells director Peter Kunhardt in the documentary.
"$3.17 is a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, but the market's down this morning, so I'll pass up the $3.17 and go with the $2.95."
Buffett proceeds to order a sausage, egg and cheese and pay using exact change.
On this year’s list, Forbes is only including African billionaires living in Africa, instead of featuring Africa’s 50 richest people. There are 21 billionaires on this year’s list, worth a combined $70 billion.
Nigerian cement tycoon Aliko Dangote remains Africa’s richest person for the sixth year running with a $12.1 billion fortune, despite a nearly $5 billion drop in his net worth for the second year in a row. Dangote is joined by just two other Nigerian billionaires on this year’s list – telecom tycoon Mike Adenuga, who is Africa’s third richest person with an estimated $5.8 billion fortune, and oil billionaire Folorunsho Alakija, who has an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion.
Two Nigerians dropped off the Billionaires List this year – oil marketer Femi Otedola, whose net worth dropped from $1.6 billion in November 2015 to $330 million today, and sugar billionaire Abdulsamad Rabiu, whose net worth dropped below $1 billion in the wake of a weakened Nigerian currency.
See full list below
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