Since the beginning of the global economic crisis, customers started saving more money and companies started registering huge losses. Millions of people around the world lost their jobs and a lot of institutions went bankrupt. The crisis definitely made some significant changes in the wealth of world's richest people. Last year, Forbes published the list of the wealthiest people on Earth and after the global economic crisis had its tsunami-like effect on the world economies it would be interesting to see what changes occurred in the list, who lost more, who managed to stay afloat and who lost everything, showing little flexibility during the critical changes that occurred over the past few months.

A recent survey showed that the wealth of millionaires from the United States decreased by almost 30 percent with just 36 percent of them believe that their financial advisors did the best they could during the crisis.

A lot of wealthy people lost a substantial share of their wealth, but below you can observe the list of people that registered the most significant loses as a result of the crisis.

Anil Ambani

Net worth in March 2008: $42 billion;

Today's net worth: $12 billion.

Last March Anil Ambani proved to be the biggest collector of wealth, accumulating billions of dollars. Today he is number one in the list of people that lost the most during the global economic crisis. Figures show that the billionaire lost $30 billion over the last 9 months, which is more than any other billionaire on the globe.

The shares of his telecom company registered a significant decrease in price shortly after his estranged brother played his role in failing to achieve a deal with African telecom MTN. His negative achievement could not be surpassed by his other three countrymen, one being his estranged brother Mukesh, the other one a steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and the third one Indian KP Singh. Last year, all of them they were included in the Top 10 among world's wealthiest people.

 

Sheldon Adelson

Since the beginning of 2008, the businessman registered a $24 billion loss due to the fact that his company's stock dropped 95 percent during the whole year.

The value of Las Vegas Sands Corporation significantly deceased after the global economic downturn had a negative influence on Chinese gambling.

It was heard that the casino tycoon, Adelson, is investing $1 billion of his personal cash to improve the company's balance sheet.

 

 

 

Warren Buffet

Since 2008, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway registered a loss of $16.5 billion.

he shares of his company dropped 26 percent during the crisis due to a number of mistakes the businessman made throughout the recession, starting with September 2008.

 

 

 

Kirk Kerkorian

In 2008 the mogul lost $11.9 billion. It is worth mentioning that he gathered his wealth by developing a series of hotels in Las Vegas.

The economic downturn forced the 91-year-old investor to sell a big part of his stock of Ford at a considerable loss.  

Kerkorian's 53 percent stake in MGM Mirage dropped 87 percent.

 

 Larry Page

It was reported that the co-founder of number one search engine, Google, lost in 2008 $12.1 billion.

 

Since January the company has lost about half of its net worth, mainly due to the fluctuations on the stock market.

 

 

 

 Larry Ellison

His loss estimates $8.2 billion. Over the last year the shares his software titan Oracle dropped 28 percent.

 

Ellison was also the co-founder of the public holding, NetSuite, the stock of which went down 79 percent.

 

 

Lakshmi Mittal

In March 2008, his net worth was $50 billion and the global economic crisis slightly changed this number to $20 billion, which is the current net worth of the businessman.

In 2007 Forbes listed Mittal as the wealthiest man in India and one of the wealthiest in the world.

After the tycoon's steelmaking conglomerate ArcelorMittal raised production cuts and the company's shares registered a significant drop, Mittal lost $30.5 billion.

 

Oleg Deripaska

Net worth in March 2008: $28 billion ;

Today's net worth: less than $10 billion.

He might have survived the bandit wars that took place in Russia during the 1990s, but the ex-metal trader was unable to save his mighty wealth during the economic downturn, registering heavy debts of about $14 billion. He was able to receive $4.5 billion loan from the state-control bank to be able to preserve his 25 percent share of in Norilsk Nickel, a company that faced a maintenance call by Western banks from which the businessman had borrowed.

 

 

 

Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson

Net worth in March 2008: $1.1 billion

Today's net worth: $0.

He lost all his fortune after the government failed to seize the second largest bank in Iceland.

He was the chairman of the bank and its biggest shareholder together with his son Thor.

Hansa, which was his holding company, went into voluntary bankruptcy and as for his soccer team, West Ham, it has been since looking for a new buyer.

 

Luis Portillo

Net worth in March 2008: $1.2 billion

Today's net worth: $15 million

Once Spain's wealthiest person, in 2005 Portillo bought the estate company Inmocaral and later, in 2006, led the takeover of another big company Inmobiliaria Colonial.

To be able to finish what he started the businessman borrowed $1.4 billion from over a dozen banks, using his shares as collateral. I

n December 2007 he resigned from the position of chairman and later attempted to sell his shares to a Dubai fund.

His attempt failed and he was forced to sell his stake in order to pay the debts.

 

David Ross

Net worth in March 2008: $1.4 billion

Today's net worth: $150 million

So far Ross resigned from four boards. He was the one to co-found the popular British retailer Carphone Warehouse.

Several years ago he started pledging his shares as collateral in order to be able to fund real estate investments.

His lost almost all his wealth after the property values dropped together with Carphone stock, which made him face debt obligations.

 

Larry Yung

Net worth in March 2008: $3 billion

Today's net worth: $750 million

After Yung's Citic Pacific declared a profit warning due to bad currency debts in October 2008, the reputation of one of the most popular capitalists in China suffered a real blow.

The company's shares dropped over 80 percent.

Citic Pacific's parent company, Citic Group, agreed to offer credit to rebound the company, though Citic Pacific was still down by over a half.

 

Konstantin Zhevago

Net worth in March 2008: $3.4 billion

Today's net worth: $350 million

Over the last couple of months the Ukrainian iron ore tycoon lost more than $3 billion after the stock of his Ferrexpo dropped 89 percent since March. After that JPMorgan Chase reached the company's door to recall its loan. In order to raise cash, the businessman sold 20 percent of Ferrexpo's shares at a discount of 30 percent. Shortly after that, the company's CEO quit and his position was taken by Zhevago. Still, he is probably not in a really bad position after all, being a deputy in the parliament of Ukraine and a supporter of the country's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

For your information: last year's Forbes' list of the wealthiest people in the world was the following.

Rank                Name                                                              Wealth

  1                    Warren Buffett,                                     $62 billion

  2                    Carlos Slim Helu & family                          $60 billion

  3                    William Gates III                                     $58 billion

  4                    Lakshmi Mittal                                        $45 billion

  5                    Mukesh Ambani                                      $43 billion

  6                    Anil Ambani                                           $42 billion

  7                    Ingvar Kamprad & family                          $31 billion

  8                    KP Singh                                               $30 billion

  9                    Oleg Deripaska                                       $28 billion

  10                  Karl Albrecht                                          $27 billion

  11                  Li Ka-shing                                             $26.5 billion

  12                  Sheldon Adelson                                     $26 billion

  13                  Bernard Arnault                                      $25.5 billion

  14                  Lawrence Ellison                                     $25 billion

  15                  Roman Abramovich                                 $23.5 billion

  16                  Theo Albrecht                                       $23 billion

  17                  Liliane Bettencourt                                 $22.9 billion

  18                  Alexei Mordashov                                   $21.2 billion

  19                  Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud                $21.0 billion

  20                  Mikhail Fridman                                       $20.8 billion

  21                  Vladimir Lisin                                          $20.3 billion

  22                  Amancio Ortega                                     $20.2 billion

  23                  Raymond, Thomas & Walter Kwok            $19.9 billion

  24                  Mikhail Prokhorov                                    $19.5 billion

  25                  Vladimir Potanin                                     $19.3 billion

The 2008 could certainly be named the most horrible year for the world economy with $73 trillion of stock market value reduced to nothing, which proves that the financial world is in disorder.