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<p>Prominent Houston attorney John O'Quinn was one of two men who died this morning when their SUV slammed into a large tree on Allen Parkway after the driver apparently lost control, police said.</p> <p>"I'm stunned. The community lost one of its biggest assets," said Rick Laminack, who worked with O'Quinn from 1987 until 2006. "He was a great lawyer who shared a lot of his wealth with people who needed help."</p>

For eight years Joaquín Guzmán Loera reportedly managed his international drug smuggling operation from behind bars while enjoying a lavish prison life with access to booze, women and a home entertainment system. Then in January 2001, facing extradition to the U.S., Guzmán slipped into a laundry cart and escaped. Since then "El Chapo," or Shorty, as he is called, has tightened his grip on Mexico's drug trade as head of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the biggest suppliers of cocaine to the U.S. It is a lucrative business to be in these days. Thirty-five million people in the U.S. use...

Billionaire Paul Allen is a Microsoft cofounder, the owner of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and the owner of the NBA's Portland Trailblazers. And, thanks to the stimulus bill President Obama signed this week, he's also about to be as much as a billion dollars richer. Here's how: Allen owns a majority stake in cable provider Charter Communications. Charter Communications this month said it would reduce its debt load by $8 billion and enter Chapter 11. Normally, partners at a firm like Charter Communications would have to pay taxes on the amount of debt forgiven in this process, which is, in...

Hoping to halt what it called "a fraud of shocking magnitude that has spread its tentacles throughout the world," the Securities and Exchange Commission charged billionaire R. Allen Stanford and other executives at his massive financial services company, Stanford Financial Group, with operating a multibillion-dollar fraudulent investment scheme. In a complaint filed early Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Dallas, the SEC alleged Antigua-based Stanford International Bank (SIB) fabricated investment returns in order to market and sell high-yielding certificates of deposits. The complaint charged SIB with selling approximately $8 billion of CDs to investors by promising improbable and unsubstantiated interest...

German Billionaire Commits Suicide After VW Losses In killing himself German billionaire Adolf Merckle has become the latest casualty of the global financial crisis, his family saying on Tuesday he was broken by the struggle to salvage their business empire. Merckle, who was the world's 94th-richest person in 2008 according to Forbes magazine, spent his life building a business conglomerate with about 100,000 employees. The empire was poised to come crashing down after his family made wrong-way bets on skyrocketing Volkswagen shares. The family has been under pressure to sell some assets or seek bridging loans and has been in...

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1019...rket-headwinds Obama Billionaire Supporters Are Causing Market Headwinds by: Jason Schwarz October 28, 2008 | Market turmoil gets Barack Obama elected. He knows this and more importantly, so do his supporters. A survey released by Prince and Associates, shows that 75% of voters worth $1 million to $10 million are favoring John McCain, but of those voters worth more than $30 million, two-thirds support Obama. It's no secret that the majority of uber rich individuals despise the current administration and are willing to do whatever they can to get new blood into the White House; even if it comes under...

WASHINGTON – Billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, formerly No. 1 on Bill Clinton's enemies list as the so-called "marionette" of the "vast right-wing conspiracy," met with the former president for two hours this week, offering to help him with his global initiative. Scaife, who personally funded many of the investigations of the Clinton administration that led to the president's impeachment, last April formerly endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a daily newspaper he owns. That endorsement came just before the Pennsylvania primary, which Hillary Clinton won, and just after Scaife met with her. Scaife's...

George Soros talked about domestic and international financial markets, and the impact of a recent mortgage crisis on other sectors of the economy. In his remarks he said the worst of the financial crisis might be over but the effects of he crisis might be felt for some time to come by various sectors of the economy. Mr. Soros is the author of The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crash of 2008 and What It Means, published by PublicAffairs.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has fuelled talk of a massive tunnel between Europe and America by forking out $160 MLN on the world’s largest drill. The 19-metre giant will be the first drill capable of boring a four-lane tunnel. The project would link Russia’s far eastern Chutoka region, which Abramovich governs, with America’s Alaska. The tunnel was first mooted by the Tsars and then in the 1990s, but both times it was dumped because of high costs. President Vladimir Putin is said to back the latest idea, as it would open up lucrative freight routes from Europe and allow Russian...

To most political observers, the near-certainty that John McCain will be the Republican nominee ends any prospects for a Michael Bloomberg candidacy as an independent. Alas, Bloomberg begs to differ. He reportedly sees the current state of play as another opening for his presidential dreams. After telling friends he believes Hillary Clinton will be her party's nominee, Bloomberg said at a recent event, "Hillary should pray I get in the race because that would help her," according to a source quoted in the Daily News gossip column Rush & Molloy. Bloomberg, whose office would neither confirm nor deny he made...

BELOIT, Wis. - A roofing company billionaire listed as the 91st richest man in the United States has died after a fall from a roof at his home. Police say 66-year-old Ken Hendricks was checking construction on a garage roof at his home in Rock, Wisc., on Thursday night when he fell through. His company, ABC Supply, says he suffered massive head injuries. Police say Hendricks' wife called authorities and attempted CPR, but her husband was pronounced dead after being transported to Rockford Memorial Hospital in Winnebago County, Illinois. Hendricks was the founder, chairman and CEO of ABC Supply, the...

We scoured the how-to-marry-rich literature and talked to society watchers, upscale matchmakers and wealth experts. And we pored over divorce news to see how spouse No. 1 was supplanted by spouse No. 2 (or 3). Unfortunately, those who had already made it to Fat City refused to say how they got there. "I am just not telling," said one billionaire's wife over her cellphone before hanging up. Nonetheless, our findings were encouraging. Marrying a billionaire is not beyond your grasp, as long as you're willing to work hard toward your goal. (Yes, hard work - albeit of a different kind...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Mayor Bloomberg is decrying the state of the 2008 presidential race, faulting the major party candidates for offering shallow, simplistic prescriptions, and scolding the press for failing to demand more from those seeking the White House. During an appearance at Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg said the televised debates among the presidential candidates have been, in essence, a waste of time. "They have absolutely nothing to do with the job and the qualifications. And they don't tell you anything about whether or not any of those candidates would be good or bad presidents....

The new Forbes billionaires list just came out. It’s always fun to flip through the names, ages and profiles of the billionaires. I could give you a lot of details about how many more there are than last year, where they’re from, and how much younger they all are. But details like that probably wouldn’t answer your main question: What could you possibly have in common with a billionaire? The answer is pretty exciting. Of all the 946 billionaires in the world, 60 percent made their money from scratch. Think about that. The majority of the world’s billionaires once had...

<p>French police are investigating a car crash involving a billionaire Russian parliamentarian who was critically injured when his Ferrari slammed into a tree on the Mediterranean seafront in Nice.</p> <p>Suleyman Kerimov, 40, a far rightwing member of the State Duma from Dagestan, was said by police to have lost control of the car as he sped on Saturday in rain along the Promenade des Anglais, the Riviera’s most celebrated thoroughfare.</p>

THE Russian billionaire and parliamentarian Suleiman Kerimov was in a critical condition in a French hospital yesterday after crashing a Ferrari Enzo only hours after buying it. Listed by Forbes magazine as the 72nd richest person in the world, Mr Kerimov lost control of the £500,000 car on Saturday afternoon on the Promenade des Anglais in the French resort of Nice. The car hit a tree, burst into flames and was destroyed. Mr Kerimov, 41, was flown by helicopter to a specialist burns clinic at a hospital in Marseilles. A spokesman for the hospital authority said his condition remained "worrisome",...

Billionaire political activist George Soros, who spent more than $25 million trying to help defeat President Bush in 2004, has spent almost as much to keep a roof over his head on Fifth Avenue. The Hungarian-born financier just paid his ex-wife, Susan Weber Soros, $24 million for the 16-room duplex co-op apartment at 1060 Fifth Ave., which the couple shared during their 20 years of marriage.

Speaking at a Washington symposium on the continuing threat posed by illegal drugs to American society, Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation declared billionaire George Soros to be an "extremely evil person" who wants to legalize dangerous mind-altering drugs. Sounding a battle cry as critical November elections approach, Fay told the assembled conservative activists that Soros, an atheist who is a major funder of the Democratic Party and liberal-left causes, is "our common enemy" and that he is determined to subvert traditional values and undermine America's families. Soros, convicted of insider trading in France, is a financial speculator...

California leads the states in how much Section 527 issue-advocacy groups spend on state elections — $5.2 million, up more than 300 percent from the 2004 election cycle. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics says this is part of a national trend in which these tax-exempt groups, which can raise unlimited money, are shifting their focus from federal to state politics. California Common Cause policy advocate Ned Wigglesworth said the explosion in state-level spending underscores that "527s are the 'billionaire boys clubs' of politics — they're created specifically to skirt campaign laws and give some of the richest people...

After long probe, Palm Beach billionaire faces solicitation charge By Larry Keller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 26, 2006 Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein paid to have underage girls and young women brought to his home, where he received massages and sometimes sex, according to an investigation by the Palm Beach Police Department. Palm Beach police spent months sifting through Epstein's trash and watching his waterfront home and Palm Beach International Airport to keep tabs on his private jet. An indictment charging Epstein, 53, was unsealed Monday, charging him with one count of felony solicitation of prostitution. ******...

Billionaire Ron Burkle's day began with a devastating defeat as documents relating to his bitter divorce were released to the public following a California appeals court ruling. But he had reason to celebrate later Thursday when the court rejected his wife's claim that he had tricked her into accepting an agreement for a fraction of their assets - $30 million plus interest and a house - if the couple ever divorced. Janet Burkle's fraud allegation triggered court and legislative battles over whether their divorce records should be kept sealed. "It is unfortunate that Mr. Burkle's desire for privacy was exploited...

On Monday Fidel Castro, the world's longest-ruling Marxist dictator, offered to resign the Presidency of Cuba. Earlier this month Forbes Magazine listed Castro as the world's seventh wealthiest ruler, estimating his personal fortune at $900 million, almost double the $500 million personal net worth of Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. "If they prove that I have an account abroad…containing even one dollar," Castro declared in a Cuban television appearance, "I will resign from my position, from my current responsibilities." Forbes, reported Agence France-Presse, "cited former Cuban officials as saying that Castro had skimmed profits from a Havana convention center, retail...

Ex-president Bill Clinton stands to reap "tens of millions of dollars" in personal income from his job as an advisor to Yucaipa Companies, a California private equity firm controlled by one of his best friends and biggest political donors, billionaire Ron Burkle. The New York Times reports Sunday that the sweetheart deal comes "without great effort and at virtually no risk" for the former president. "He has put up little of his own money and has no day-to-day responsibilities over how the more than $1 billion in the funds is invested," the paper said. Mr. Burkle, who built his financial...

After leaving the White House in 2001, former President Bill Clinton was inundated with business and job offers, from investment-bank partnerships to seats on corporate boards. He turned them all down, with one exception: He agreed to be an adviser to a family of funds run by the Yucaipa Companies, a California private equity firm controlled by one of his best friends, the billionaire Ronald W. Burkle. Mr. Clinton's arrangement with Mr. Burkle is an unusual one for a former president, giving him the potential to make tens of millions of dollars without great effort and at virtually no risk,...

You think Tom Cruise hopping up and down on Oprah’s couch was as silly as it can get? You must have missed the talk show queen’s recent program about people living on low wages. Claiming that 30 million Americans are working full time but are still stuck in poverty, Miss Winfrey cited the statistic as a “shameful secret” proving that the promise of the American dream has been broken. But there’s more: “This is why New Orleans happened. This is why it happened. Because you had people who were working, service people, minimum wage jobs, working people who didn’t have...

SIX people have been arrested while protesting outside a state memorial service at Sydney's Opera House honouring late media mogul Kerry Packer. The four men and two women were part of a small group calling themselves the Kerry Packer Dis-memorial Collective gathered outside the Opera House to protest against the taxpayer-funded service. The six, whose ages are unknown, were arrested for refusing police directions to leave, and will be taken to Surry Hills police station for processing. One of the six was also arrested for hindering police. The remaining protesters then dispersed as guests arrived. Security is tight around the...

LUXEMBOURG, February 01: Luxembourg's prime minister vowed on Tuesday to use "all necessary means" to fend off a hostile $23 billion bid by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal for Arcelor, one of Europe's biggest companies. Speaking to the Grand Duchy's parliament after meeting with the Indian-born billionaire, Jean-Claude Juncker criticised him for not consulting him ahead of time, adding that he did not think a deal was in the best interest of Europe. "I am determined -- as is the government -- to do everything to preserve everything that we have worked for and that we believe in ... by using...

What do you get the Muscovite who has everything? A million-dollar pen? A new head of hair? An island? A suit made, literally, of money? The excesses of Russia's super-rich went on display this weekend when a "millionaire's fair" opened on the outskirts of Moscow, catering to the ostentatious tastes of the city's 88,000 dollar millionaires and 33 billionaires. An estimated 7,000 ordinary Muscovites a day paid £20 to get a glimpse of the eccentric lifestyles of the minority who are drowning in oil money. On show were the trappings of the immodest: a helicopter, a Lamborghini, a diamond ring...

ProfileGeorge Soros’s Right-Wing TwinMultibillionaire commodities king Bruce Kovner is the patron saint of the neoconservatives, the new Lincoln Center’s crucial Medici, owner of a vast Fifth Avenue mansion—and the most powerful New Yorker you’ve never heard of. By Philip Weiss (Photo credit: Courtesy of Bruce Kovner) After the opening-night performance of Tosca at the Met this spring, a handful of people found their way through a side door of the hall to the narrow corridor that leads backstage. One or two held flowers; a couple were in eveningwear. They were headed for the dressing rooms to congratulate soprano Maria...

Billionaire globalist George Soros is helping to lead the opposition to John Bolton becoming the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, says watchdog group Accuracy in Media. Bolton, who has served as undersecretary of state, today is facing questioning from senators before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as part of his confirmation process. Bolton's candidacy "is the biggest battle over a nomination that we have seen in years," said Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid. "But the Big Media have refused to identify the role of George Soros in orchestrating the opposition to Bolton." AIM says the pro-world government...

He didn't make it into the billionaire category, but Fidel Castro nonetheless earned an honorable mention on Forbes magazine's annual list of the World's Richest People out this month. And why not? With a net worth of $550 million, this is one bit of media recognition that El Jefe actually deserves. According to Forbes, the Cuban leader committed to "socialism or death" has made a killing from a "web of state-owned businesses" -- all of which have no competition in the worker's paradise. Castro's most profitable operations include a convention center, a retail conglomerate and a company called Medicuba that...

11:14am 03/05/05 Warren Buffett confesses he 'struck out' in 2004 (BRKA, BRKB) By Thomas Middleton NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Warren Buffett, renowned investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA) , said he "struck out" in 2004 by failing to make acquisitions that would have increased earnings. In his company's 40th annual report Saturday, the 74-year-old CEO said Berkshire Hathaway increased its net worth by $8.3 billion last year. That increased the company's per-share book value by 10.5%, which fell short of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which posted a 10.9% return for 2004. Buffett said he found "very...

TOKYO - Billionaire Japanese developer Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, once listed by Forbes as the world's richest man, was arrested Thursday over allegations of insider trading and falsifying financial statements at his company. Tsutsumi, 70, owns a major stake in Kokudo Corp., which controls Seibu Railway and its 85 subsidiaries. He also owns Prince Hotels Inc., the Seibu Lions professional baseball team and Seibu Construction Ltd. He was arrested on suspicion of violating the securities and exchange law, the Tokyo District Prosecutors' Office said. Prosecutors took Tsutsumi to a Tokyo detention center for questioning. Prosecutors also raided Seibu Railway's offices to gather...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Billionaire investor Ron Burkle sued Michael Ovitz on Thursday, claiming the former Walt Disney Co. president breached an agreement to invest in Internet businesses and to allow Burkle to buy into his talent agency and the Google search engine. The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages. Ovitz's attorney, James Ellis, said the allegations are "baseless and false." "The lawsuit was filed in retaliation for Mr. Ovitz having come forward with facts which revealed that Mr. Burkle and his affiliates had breached their fiduciary duties and engaged in other unlawful activities," Ellis...

Teresa Heinz Blames the Media Making what she called her "first real speech" since her husband lost the presidential election, Teresa Heinz blamed the media for distorting their position on the environment. Addressing Stanford University's "Whole Earth Symposium" last week, the first lady wannabe said that the press was largely responsible for the perception that her husband ignored the environment during the 2004 campaign, according to the campus newspaper, the Stanford Report. She insisted that John Kerry discussed energy issues every day and claimed that she frequently talked about "sustainability." But their comments were not reported. What did get covered...

A Billionaire and His Dog By Kathleen Parker ARLINGTON, Va. - When it comes to movies, give me an adorable dog, a flawed father, a motherless girl-child with a heart the size of Disney World -- toss in an eccentric dowager librarian and a Magical Negro (to borrow the term popularized by Spike Lee), not to mention Dave Matthews -- and for two hours I'm all yours. Especially if I'm 7 years old. So goes the cast of characters in a new movie due for release Friday -- "Because of Winn-Dixie" -- that parents can take their children to without...

Billionaire George Soros spent $26 million last year trying to defeat George Bush, and he blames John Kerry for Bush's victory. In what Bloomberg.com termed his sharpest criticism of Kerry yet, Soros, the biggest contributor to the beat-Bush campaign, said that Kerry was a flawed candidate. In an interview with Bloomberg.com, Soros complained: "Kerry did not, actually, offer a credible and coherent alternative. That had a lot to do with Bush being re-elected." Kerry, he added, "tried to emphasize his role as a Vietnam War hero and downplay his role as an anti-Vietnam War hero, which he was," said Soros....

MOSCOW – In his harshest criticism of the Kremlin to date, jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky accused the Russian government of stealing his Yukos oil empire and warned in a letter published Tuesday that an ongoing crackdown on post-Soviet freedoms will ruin the country. Writing from prison, where he has been for more than 14 months, Khodorkovsky said the sale of Yukos' main production unit into state hands this month "was the most senseless and destructive event in the economic sphere since President Vladimir Putin has taken helm." "Using selective justice, introducing new legal norms and applying them retroactively," the state...

SIR Richard Branson tried to prevent the Iraq war in a secret deal with Nelson Mandela. The Virgin boss hoped to send the former leader of South Africa to meet Saddam Hussein and persuade him to go into exile. He even got United Nations chief Kofi Annan's approval for the plan, despite fears that Saddam might kidnap Mandela. A private jet was ready to fly the Nobel Peace Prize winner to Iraq. Branson offered to join him on the peace mission. But coalition forces invaded Iraq just before they went. Branson opposed invasion plans and believed if they could offer...

WASHINGTON — Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned. Rich, the fugitive Swiss-based commodities trader who received a controversial pardon from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, is a primary target of criminal probes. Full Story

Kerry Campaign Stonewalling on Nannygate Questions Does John Kerry, whose billionaire wife Teresa employs a small army of housekeepers, gardeners, cooks, chauffeurs, butlers and other hired help at her five estates around the country, have a Nannygate problem? Two calls this week to the Kerry campaign press office, asking if Mrs. Heinz has paid Social Security taxes on her domestic staff, have so far gone unreturned. Questions about whether candidates and their spouses are illegally paying domestic help off the books have bedeviled the political campaigns of the rich and famous since 1993, when Clinton Attorney General nominee Zoe Baird...

Seven year-old Michael Benson gives Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry a campaign contribution of small change from his piggy bank in a small basket at a campaign stop in West Palm Beach, Florida October 18, 2004, the first day of early voting in Florida. [Reuters]

The Great Masquerade October 18, 2004 - As the candidates square off at the pulpit, stark differences come to light. The American people know President Bush to be forthright – a strong and decisive leader who persevered through the most challenging of times. We are exposed to quite a different story when the rhetorical light is shed on John Kerry. John Kerry’s image, in contrast, remains as fluid as his political posturing for he is completely immersed in an open-ended struggle to reinvent himself and camouflage his questionable past. Looking beyond his self-serving rhetoric and arrogant delivery, one finds the...

This CONSERVATIVE ALERT is a special message from RightMarch.com for xxxxxx xxxxxxx: ALERT: There isn't a "For Sale" sign on the White House lawn YET, but foreign-born billionaire George Soros is busy making good on his $15 million down payment to buy the Oval Office for his own personal bought-and-paid-for Democrat nominee. Still sore over losing the last presidential election, Soros is funding an all-out drive -- not only to go against President George W. Bush, but to undermine American sovereignty, to lose in Iraq, and to drop the war on terror. When the White House is among his worldwide...

A small army of cops and firefighters seeking higher pay gave Mayor Bloomberg a bon voyage protest outside his upper East Side townhouse early this morning.  Several hundred of the Finest and Bravest massed on E. 79th St. at 1:15 a.m. to chant, rant and wave placards calling for a new contract - just when the mayor was presumably resting up before his trip to the Athens Olympics today. A contingent made up largely of firefighters chanted "Strike, strike, strike!" as they marched across the street from the mayor's residence. Squads of cops in blue T-shirts proclaiming "Police Officers for...

Just as the term "Clintonesque" has become a standard term to describe sleaze, dishonesty, calculated political attacks, etc...can we now use the term Kerryesque to descibe: -Lack of conviction -Flip-flopping -Being on both sides of an issue in one breath! -etc All in favor say AYE! and start using the term everywhere...especially in Letters to Editors, FR posts, discussions with other conservatives, phone calls to talk shows, debates with liberal "friends", etc.

Pity Mister Palestine. He is looking less the tragic King Lear these days than the mad King Canute, standing on the sea shore and ordering the tide to turn back. Even his most admiring devotees are having difficulty discerning the Mandela struggling to emerge from his trademark olive drab. So, while the world leaders take off for their lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, Yasser ("what crisis?") Arafat remains entombed in Ramallah, beset by dissent in Gaza, threats of revolt in the West Bank, and reform-or-else ultimatums from his former security chief. And, to top it all, there are renewed...

"He had to mortgage his own home…." So reads the New York Times story bizarrely entitled “Kerry's Campaign Has Soared From Poorhouse to Penthouse.” The American dream story. Sounds Capraesque: I will put up my own home to become the leader of my nation. And that “poorhouse” mention has to take the prize for most misleading connotation of a a headline, at least since the orgy of “no link found” headlines. All the story really tells us is that as soon as others had put up enough money, Kerry began living in the ampaign style to which his wife's late...

Teresa Heinz Kerry, through a network of investments in blue-chip corporations, venture capital funds and municipal bonds, controls a family fortune worth an estimated $1 billion, an analysis of public records shows. The $1 billion figure is double the estimates of her wealth that are widely cited in news stories about her husband, Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. The couple would rank as the wealthiest to occupy the White House, far surpassing such storied presidential fortunes as the Kennedys'. Their assets are so vast and far-reaching that they mirror the U.S. economy and will probably...