Free Republic

NEW YORK – A square, 32.01-carat emerald-cut diamond that billionaire philanthropist Leonore Annenberg bought for her 90th birthday sold for $7.7 million at auction on Wednesday. About the size of a walnut, the flawless, colorless diamond sits on a ring designed by Manhattan jeweler David Webb. It is flanked by two pear-shaped diamonds, one of them 1.61 carats and the other 1.51 carats. The ring was offered for sale by Annenberg's estate. Christie's auction house did not identify the buyer, who bid by phone. Annenberg died in March at the age of 91. She served as U.S. chief of protocol...

OCTOBER 17, 2009 Rajaratnam Surfaced in U.S. Terrorism Probe By EVAN PEREZ and MATTHEW ROSENBERG WASHINGTON—The hedge-fund billionaire charged as part of a vast insider-trading case surfaced in an earlier, separate probe into U.S. fundraising by a Sri Lankan terrorist group, people familiar with the probe said. As part of that investigation, federal agents said they uncovered documents showing that Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group, was among several wealthy Sri Lankans in the U.S. whose donations to a Maryland-based charity made their way to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to people familiar with the probe. Raj...

Date of Birth: August 12, 1930 Born: Budapest, Hungary Occupation: Hedge Fund Manager & Currency Trader George Soros, a key funder of the liberal extremist group MoveOn.org, recently told an Australian news organization that the current global economic mess has been “stimulating.” (Daily Mail 3/25/2009). While Americans try to make ends meet and struggle to pick up the pieces after financiers like Soros gamed the system, we thought you should know the truth about George Soros… FACT 1: Billionaire Financier George Soros Gave $2,500,000 To MoveOn.Org Voter Fund.1 FACT 2: Soros Called American Troops In Iraq “Perpetrators” And “Oppressors.”2 FACT...

Raj Rajaratnam was ranked by Forbes magazine last year among the 400 richest AmericansThe billionaire founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund and five others were arrested in a $20 million insider trading scandal, federal authorities said Friday. Raj Rajaratnam, 52, ranked by Forbes magazine last year among the 400 richest Americans, was charged with conspiracy and securities fraud along with current and former executives from Bear Stearns, IBM, Intel Capital and McKinsey & Co., according to federal prosecutors. Rajaratnam, was ranked No. 559 by Forbes magazine this year among the world's wealthiest billionaires, with a $1.3 billion net worth....

One of America's wealthiest men was among six hedge fund managers and corporate executives arrested Friday in a hedge fund insider trading case that prosecutors say generated more than $25 million in illegal profits and should be a wake-up call for Wall Street. Raj Rajaratnam, a partner in Galleon Management and a portfolio manager for Galleon Group, a hedge fund with up to $7 billion in assets under management, was accused of conspiring with others to trade based on insider information about several publicly traded companies, including Google Inc. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told a news conference it was the...

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell's most prized supporter was by his side Tuesday for an appearance before a women's group in Northern Virginia. Billionaire BET Networks co-founder Sheila Johnson attended a Women for McDonnell event in Tysons Corner, delivering a scripted speech to a crowd of about 100 and a handful of reporters. The longtime Democrat who campaigned for President Obama and Gov. Tim Kaine crossed the aisle earlier this year to support Mr. McDonnell. "Bob's message resonated with me from the moment I met with him," Ms. Johnson said. "For me, it isn't about party. It's about...

GADHAFI CHILDREN $200,000 EACH FROM YOUR MONEY Alan Note: Any wonder why oil BILLIONAIRE Libyan Leader praised Oba-Hussein to the skies and wished him to be in office for the rest of his life? Well, Moslem-Marxist Oba-Hussein gave $400,000 from taxpayer money to his two children! Reason enough? The Libyan Daddy could spend this in a blink of an eye and not notice but in our terrible economy, when money for Americans is in short supply, when support for the freedom demonstrators in Iran could be promoted with this kind of money, OBAMA gives it to the children of an...

America's super rich are getting poorer. For only the fifth time since 1982, the collective net worth of The Forbes 400 — our annual tally of the nation's richest people — has declined, falling $300 billion in the past 12 months from $1.57 trillion to $1.27 trillion. Faltering capital markets and real estate prices, along with divorce and fraud, pushed the fortunes of 314 members down and drove 32 plutocrats off the rankings. Hurt the most: Warren Buffett, America's second-richest citizen. The Oracle of Omaha dropped $10 billion from his personal balance sheet as shares of Berkshire Hathaway fell 20%...

merica's richest people are getting poorer, according to this year's Forbes 400 list. The annual ranking of the 400 wealthiest US citizens shows their net worth has dropped by $300bn, from $1.57 trillion to a paltry $1.27 trillion. That includes a loss of nearly $40bn for the top ten alone. The decline can be attributed to the global economic crisis, which has affected the capital and housing markets, as well as fraud and divorce, causing 314 returning members to record a loss. Warren Buffett, who remains at number two, was the worst affected by the world recession, losing $10bn over...

According to Forbes, the $10 million [£6.2 million] bonus that Woods got for his recent FedEx Cup win pushed him over the $1 billion [£620 million] mark in total career earnings. Phil Mickelson with the Tour Championship trophy beside Tiger Woods, with the FedEx Cup, which earned him a $10 million (£6.3m) bonus Up to the beginning of 2009, the world's number one golfer had earned $895 million from prize money, appearance fees, sponsorship and from designing golf courses. Adding together his winnings from this year together with his annual $100 million earnings, this makes Woods the first dollar billionaire...

And now, here’s your Brooklyn Nyets! As this paper went to press, it was announced that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov will take over as majority owner of the NBA’s Nets team from Forest City Ratner as the franchise readies for their controversial move to the Atlantic/Flatbush avenues intersection in Brooklyn. Prokhorov, an avid sportsman, and his company Onexim Group made their fortune primarily through gold, metals and mining in Russia. Under the agreement, Onexim will invest $200 million and make certain contingent funding commitments to acquire 45 percent of the arena project and 80 percent of the NBA team, and...

Ralph Nader has been many things: lawyer, consumer-rights bulldog, political activist and perennial third-party presidential candidate. He has now added a new title to his business card: fiction writer. His latest book, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, is a 700-page populist fantasy in which a small group of billionaires and media moguls — led by Warren Buffett and including Ted Turner, George Soros, Bill Cosby, Yoko Ono and Phil Donahue — pool their massive resources to reform the U.S. With the help of a $15 billion war chest and a p.r. campaign starring a talking parrot, the group successfully...

Videos of young couple posing as sex workers getting financial advice made possible by a generous handoutIn the world of far-right libertarian economics, altruism is considered a sin. However, that didn't stop billionaire ideologue Peter Thiel, who minted his fortune as a cofounder of PayPal and investor in Facebook, from giving "about $10,000" after being approached by provocateur James O'Keefe. That money, and other funds from the Leadership Institute, a conservative think-tank, was used to film a number of stunts, from surprising taxpayers with bills for the bank bailout to offering Planned Parenthood donations, but with racist intent. O'Keefe is...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Computer giant Dell announced on Monday it has acquired computer services firm Perot Systems, founded by Texas billionaire Ross Perot, for 3.9 billion dollars. "Dell and Perot Systems have entered a definitive agreement for Dell to acquire Perot Systems in a transaction valued at approximately 3.9 billion dollars," Dell said in a statement. Terms of the agreement were approved on Sunday by the boards of directors of both companies, it said. Dell, which is seeking to buy all ordinary shares of Perot Systems at 30 dollars a share, hopes to complete the deal by the end of...

Warren Buffett, the renowned investor and the world’s second richest man, told Senate Democrats that wealthy Americans need to pay higher taxes, giving Democrats something to mull as they address healthcare reform and soaring federal deficits. Senate Democrats met with Buffett for more than an hour over lunch Thursday, peppering him with questions about the economy, said lawmakers in attendance. “He said rich people are not paying enough taxes,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). “It was interesting to see someone who is such an aggressive capitalist, who believes so much in our capitalist system, saying we’ve got the scales way...

Warren E. Buffett has two cardinal rules of investing. Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1. Well, a lot of old rules got trashed when the financial crisis struck — even for the Oracle of Omaha. At 79, Mr. Buffett is coming off the worst year of his long, storied career. On paper, he personally lost an estimated $25 billion in the financial panic of 2008, enough to cost him his title as the world’s richest man. (His friend and sometime bridge partner, Bill Gates, now holds that honor, according to Forbes.) And...

Richard Egan, the billionaire co-founder of EMC Corp. and the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, died today of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head, police and other sources confirmed. Egan, 73, a resident of the Four Seasons condominiums on Boylston Street, had been battling terminal cancer, sources said. He had a visiting nurse attending to him while he underwent treatments. Both the nurse and his wife were in the condominium this afternoon when Egan died at home, sources told the Herald.

As the health care debate rages on, President Barack Obama will begin a week-long vacation Sunday in Martha’s Vineyard, an enclave of liberal royalty far from middle America, where his approval numbers are starting to stall. Already, at least one group on the right is taking a jab at Obama over his beach vacation — at a 28-acre farm, said to rent for up to $50,000 a week. Obama has struggled against the perception that he has trouble connecting with average voters, and some are questioning his choice of a getaway spot for the well-to-do. “The danger for President Obama...

To understand this threat, we need to look at where we stand historically. If we leave aside the war-impacted years of 1942 to 1946, the largest annual deficit the United States has incurred since 1920 was 6 percent of gross domestic product. This fiscal year, though, the deficit will rise to about 13 percent of G.D.P., more than twice the non-wartime record. In dollars, that equates to a staggering $1.8 trillion. Fiscally, we are in uncharted territory. Because of this gigantic deficit, our country’s “net debt” (that is, the amount held publicly) is mushrooming. During this fiscal year, it will...

And yet Dems block offshore oil production in the U.S. Two pieces of information here. Connect the dots: 1. The Obama Administration is offering billions in loans for oil drilling off the coast of Brazil. 2. George Soros, the Dems top money man has a huge financial stake in the offshore drilling company. Obama Underwrites Offshore DrillingToo bad it's not in U.S. watersWall Street Journal AUGUST 18, 2009 You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance...