Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may be the world's richest man with an estimated fortune of $70 billion dollars, according to reports
Media reported Monday that Mubarak's family fortune could be as high as $70 billion, much of it in Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in New York, Los Angeles and London. The $70 billion dollars would put the 82-year-old comfortably ahead of Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim Helu, worth about $53.5 billion dollars, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the richest American with $53 billion. According to Princeton political science professor Amaney Jamal, quoted by ABC, Mubarak’s three-decade rule in Egypt had kept him in a perfect spot to get a piece of any government action. Mubarak, his wife and two sons were able to also accumulate wealth through a number of business partnerships with foreigners, Christopher Davidson, professor of Middle East Politics at Durham University in England, told ABC. Egyptian law requires that foreigners give a local business partner a 51 percent stake in most ventures.