Muammar Gaddafi, Libya
Muammar Gaddafi and Vladimir Putin are at the head of a cast that involves many, even many billions of euros.
The list involves many, even many billions of euros. It was published by , based on figures from Yahoo Finance.
This table is millionaire and presents the 10 richest political leaders of all time; whether they are alive or have already died.
The leader is Muammar Gaddafi, who was Libya’s head of state for 42 years. He accumulated around 240 billion euros, mainly thanks to oil: he personally controlled the regime, with his family and close circle managing parts of the state apparatus, oil revenues and other large contracts – as if they were an extension of his personal power. He appropriated state sales, embezzled money; and Libya’s economy is closely linked to oil production and exports.
Vladimir Putin appears in second place and is the first living political leader on this list. The president of Russia is close to the value of the Libyan, with approximately 215 billion euros. Here too, State control allows enrichment (energy, banking, infrastructure) for a restricted circle, among allies, front men and companies linked to the Kremlin – with Putin standing out.
Closing the podium is Hosni Mubarak, but at another level: 84 billion euros. President of Egypt for 30 years, he was leader of a system of crony capitalism, privileged access to the State and alleged appropriation of public funds. The case of the presidential palaces became famous: the diversion of many millions of euros of state funds that were supposed to be used to renovate presidential palaces – but were instead used for work on private residences belonging to Mubarak’s family.
Still in the top-5 appear Ali Abdullah Saleh (71 billion euros) and Suharto (50 billion). Saleh, former president of Yemen, benefited from a lot of money from oil and gas contracts, in a corrupt system; Suharto, Indonesia’s former president, led a system of regime-scale crony capitalism – controlling licenses, monopolies, concessions, regime-controlled foundations or public contracts.
The next two are Ferdinand Marcos (45 billion euros) and Mahathir Mohamad (34 billion), respectively former president of the Philippines and former prime minister of Malaysia.
In 8th place appears the only name in Portuguese: José Eduardo dos Santos. With around 22 billion euros accumulated, the former president of Angola also benefited greatly from the oil sector – an obvious source of patronage, concessions, contracts and accumulation of wealth for his family and close circle, with emphasis on the centrality of Sonangol.
In the last two places on this list of the 10 richest political leaders of all time, there are Ibrahim Babangida (18 billion euros), former president of Nigeria, and Mobutu Sese Seko (13 billion euros), at the time president of Zaire.
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, ZAP //
