The Unauthorized Rich List

We are conducting a live investigation into who might be the world's richest person. The idea is that none of the existing rich lists could capture such a person because they rely heavily on metrics that are easier to confirm – public shareholdings, real estate in their own name and identifiable assets.

We aren't critical of those approaches except that we disagree the richest person on that list should be called the "richest" person on earth. It's clear that the ultra-rich go to extraordinary lengths to conceal their treasure. In some cases, it's just because they're simply private people. In other cases, it's because some of the money is ill-gotten or having such massive wealth is politically sensitive in their home countries. These reasons are precisely why we care more about the story of their wealth than that of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

All that secret wealth is like dark matter in the universe – it's huge and omnipresent and warps the very fabric of space-time, but we can't see it. What can someone actually accomplish with free access to tens and hundreds of billions of dollars? What's not for sale at that level?

Last reviewed: 10 November 2026. The list covers 17 people in 19 entries published between November 2021 and September 2025. The most recent full table of estimates appeared in our 19 August 2025 entry on Thaksin Shinawatra, and no figure has been revised since. Every number on this page is our published estimate on the date shown, not a current valuation.

The list · Read the series · How we estimate · Open questions · About

The list as last published (August 2025)

These are the figures in the table published with our 19 August 2025 entry, ordered by that estimate. The third column shows what we estimated when we first profiled each person, so that changes stay visible. Each name links to its entry.

Two people have left the list. Sam Bankman-Fried entered at $30 billion in April 2022 and was reduced to zero in November 2022. Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, the first person profiled, at $50 billion with his son Sultan in November 2021, died on 13 May 2022 (UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Where the figures moved

Our June 2025 update gave reasons for some changes: Changpeng Zhao "saw a huge hit", Bankman-Fried "went to zero", and Mohammed bin Salman’s building boom hit his personal wealth. The 2025 tables do not set out the reasoning for other large moves, including Vladimir Putin (from $0–1 billion to $70–100 billion) and Nursultan Nazarbayev (from $50 billion to $200–500 million). The Sheikh Hasina entry gives $0.5–2.0 billion in its own heading and $0.8–1.5 billion in its table; we show both.

Read the series

Start with the first entry, which sets out why the standard lists miss so much money, then read in any order. Most entries need a free Whale Hunting account; the first two and the Aponte entry are open to all. More are collected under the Rich List tag.

• 18 November 2021: Introducing the Brazen Rich List explains the project and profiles Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan.
• 25 November 2021: Is Changpeng Zhao the richest man on earth? values Changpeng Zhao’s Binance shares.
• 9 December 2021: Wall Street’s Greatest Gambler on Jeff Yass and Susquehanna.
• 6 January 2022: Oligarch of Oligarchs argues Putin’s wealth depends on keeping power.
• 13 January 2022: A Friend of the Politburo on Xi Jinping.
• 10 February 2022: King of Thailand on Maha Vajiralongkorn and the Crown Property Bureau.
• 14 April 2022: Crypto Savant Makes Rich List on Sam Bankman-Fried.
• 28 April 2022: I, Roman on Roman Abramovich.
• 20 July 2022: All the Ships in the World on Gianluigi Aponte.
• 20 October 2022: Is MBS the most powerful man in the world? on Mohammed bin Salman.
• 10 November 2022: Sam Bankman-Fried: Hero to Zero reduces him to zero after FTX collapsed.
• 31 January 2023: Nazarbayev’s Shrinking Billions on Kazakhstan’s former president.
• 8 March 2023: Isabel dos Santos and the Dubai Diamond Deal on Angola’s former first daughter.
• 13 December 2023: Dan Gertler, Master of Cobalt on the Congo mining dealer.
• 19 June 2025: The Humble Kleptocrat on Sheikh Hasina, with the 2025 update.
• 8 July 2025: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Hidden Empire on Setad and the foundations.
• 18 July 2025: Playboy Financier Jho Low Turned International Fugitive with our Jho Low and 1MDB guide.
• 19 August 2025: The Fixer, the Jet, and Thaksin’s Shadow Wealth on Thaksin Shinawatra.
• 4 September 2025: Thaksin’s Fixer and a Cambodian Empire’s Push to Control Thai Energy a follow-up.

How we estimate

The standard billionaire lists count wealth that can be confirmed: public shareholdings, property in a person’s own name, identifiable assets. Our entries go after the rest, held through states, royal estates, foundations, proxies and offshore companies. Each entry explains its own figure, and the basis differs. Some rest on sources close to the subject (the Khalifa and Aponte entries), some on stakes in companies whose value can be estimated (Changpeng Zhao’s Binance shares), and some on court records and official findings (Jho Low, whose figure is built from the 1MDB money flows).

The figures are our estimates and often wide ranges. They are not audited. Where an entry’s heading and its table disagree, we show both rather than choose.

What the figures leave open

Where did the money go when an estimate fell? Who now controls assets once held for Khalifa bin Zayed, or the frozen holdings of Isabel dos Santos? Which proxies hold the shares, land and companies that no register links to the person? If you have documents or first-hand knowledge, contact us; tell us what you know directly and what the evidence can show.

About this page

Bradley Hope edits The Unauthorized Rich List for Whale Hunting, published by Brazen. Entries keep their original bylines and dates. See also our other investigations.

Update record: First published 3 February 2022 as the series collection page. Revised 10 November 2026 to replace the embedded 2025 table with the August 2025 figures shown beside each original estimate; to add the status line, reading route, method and open questions; to add Jho Low and Thaksin Shinawatra; and to correct the link to the Khamenei entry.