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A multimillionaire thrill-seeker who was supposed to be on the missing Titanic sub said he pulled out over fears it was “cutting too many corners” — and was run with a $40 videogame controller. Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown, 61, told the Sun that he paid a $10,000 deposit for the trip along with his friend Hamish Harding, the 58-year-old British billionaire who is among the five still missing.

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has announced his engagement to his partner Ann Lesley Smith, a former police chaplain. Mr Murdoch, 92, and Ms Smith, 66, met in September at an event at his vineyard in California. The businessman told the New York Post, one of his own publications: "I dreaded falling in love - but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I'm happy." He split with fourth wife Jerry Hall last year. Mr Murdoch added that he proposed to Ms Smith on St Patrick's Day, noting that he was "one fourth Irish" and had been "very...

Police called after father-of-three tycoon's body discovered in Surrey mansion Death of Mikhail Watford, 66, 'unexplained' but is not thought to be suspiciousHis body discovered in garage of Wentworth estate in Virginia Water, SurreyComes as Boris Johnson will publish list of people whom will face sanctionsA Russian tycoon who made his fortune in oil and gas was found hanged in the garage of his Surrey mansion, according to reports.The Ukrainian-born energy magnate, 66, was found hanged by a gardener at his Wentworth estate in Virginia Water, Surrey on Monday, according to the Sun.Police are treating father-of-three Mikhail Watford's death as...

It's no scoop to tell you the Chinese regime is thin-skinned. Anyone criticising Beijing does so at their own peril and can expect immediate – and often, heavy-handed – payback. And it's not just foreigners who face the consequences. Desmond Shum is a Chinese tycoon who used to be feted at the highest levels of the Communist Party. The businessman could do no wrong until four years ago when he and his equally prominent ex-wife, inexplicably tumbled out of favour. Now Desmond is a pariah of the state, so he's decided to fight back by revealing the many secrets of...

SPOKANE, Wash. - Scientists have discovered the first nest of so-called murder hornets in the United States and plan to wipe it out Saturday to protect native honeybees, officials in Washington state said. After weeks of searching, the agency said it found the nest of Asian giant hornets in Blaine, a city north of Seattle near the Canadian border. Bad weather delayed plans to destroy the nest Friday. The world's largest hornet at 2 inches long, the invasive insects can decimate entire hives of honeybees and deliver painful stings to people. The nest was found after a worker for the...

Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden gave an interview to the New Yorker this week and spoke very candidly about his drug and alcohol abuse and also about his foreign dealings while his daddy was the Vice President of the United States. In a shocking admission, Hunter Biden, 49, told the New Yorker that he once accepted a diamond bribe from a shady Chinese business tycoon in exchange for his powerful contacts in the US. The 2.8-carat diamond was reportedly worth $80,000 and was sent to Hunter in 2016 in exchange for help making contacts in the liquefied-natural-gas industry in the...

Hundreds of pages of previously unreported emails and memos provide the clearest evidence yet that a research firm, hired by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to find dirt on and defeat Donald Trump, worked early and often with the FBI, a Department of Justice (DOJ) official and the intelligence community during the 2016 presidential election and the early days of Trump's presidency. Fusion GPS's work and its involvement with several FBI officials have been well reported. But a close review of these new documents shows just how closely Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, who reported...

Two days ago we introduced you to "the rich kids of Vancouver" for whom the most important decision in any given day is whether to spend half a million dollars on a new Lamborghini or on an investment such as "two expensive watches or some diamonds."From left, Loretta Lai, Chelsea Jiang and Diana Wang attended a receptionat a Lamborghini dealership last month in Vancouver, British ColumbiaWe now introduce you to someone who may be one of these rich kids' dad. Or rather was, because Gang Yuan, a 42-year-old mining tycoon is no longer alive. His corpse was found chopped into...

WASHINGTON - When two Russian immigrants and their American financial backer needed marketing help for their innovative electric motor, they turned to a merchant banker at one of the nation's largest investment houses - retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark. The meeting at the Washington office of Stephens Inc. in late 2001 proved fortuitous for both Clark, the former supreme commander of NATO, and the principals in WaveCrest Laboratories, at the time a small research and development company in Dulles, Va. "They hit it off pretty much right away," said WaveCrest spokesman Tom McMahon. Clark signed on as a consultant...

A Chinese court on Friday convicted a mining billionaire said to have links with former security tsar Zhou Yongkang of murder and sentenced him to death. Liu Han led private company Hanlong, which once launched a billion-dollar bid for an Australian firm. He and his brother Liu Wei were found guilty of "organising and leading a mafia-style group", murder and other crimes, the Xianning Intermediate People's Court said. They and three accomplices were sentenced to death.

Money really can’t buy you love — just ask this picky multimillionaire on Long Island. Lonely securities trader Larry Greenfield, 47, has plunked down more than $65,000 on high-end matchmaking services — all in the hopes of finding his ideal wife. After trying six different agencies over the past 12 years — and seeing 250 women — without success, the bachelor is blasting the expensive dating services as a “rip-off.” But the matchmakers are firing back, saying Greenfield wants women who are simply out of his league. Greenfield, who retired after a successful career at Opus Trading in Jericho, Long...

The marriage proposal was apparently a rather romantic affair. On Christmas Eve, the couple watched a late-night movie together and then exchanged gifts: for him a framed photograph of their King Charles Spaniel, for her an engagement ring. ‘She burst into tears,’ he revealed on Twitter at the weekend. ‘This is the happiest Christmas in memory.’ ‘The most memorable Christmas ever,’ she tweeted in agreement. ‘I love him.’ All of which might be rather more touching if the ­prospective groom was not Playboy tycoon Hugh Hefner who, at 84, is 60 years older than his fiancée, a platinum blonde model...

The $1 sale of Newsweek magazine to billionaire Sidney Harman, who is married to a member of Congress, is raising questions about the struggling magazine’s new connections to partisan politics. Harman, husband of California Democrat Rep. Jane Harman, has long financially supported Democratic candidates and has been associated with numerous center-left groups over the past decades. According to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, Harman has donated more than $150,000 to Democratic candidates and committees over the past twenty years. (He also gave $6,000 to independent Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman in 2005-2006, $4,600 to Maine Sen. Susan Collins...

UK tycoon 'arrested in Zimbabwe' Mr van Hoogstraten is accused of charging rent in foreign currency British property developer Nicholas van Hoogstraten has been arrested in Zimbabwe, according to local media. The state-run Herald newspaper said Mr van Hoogstraten, 63, was charged with breaking foreign exchange laws after a night raid at his Harare home. He is accused of demanding rent in overseas currency, contrary to Zimbabwean law, the newspaper said. A police spokesman told it that Mr van Hoogstraten, of Uckfield, East Sussex, owns about 200 properties in Zimbabwe. Bundles of money Officers recovered 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars (£335,883;...

FTER becoming one of post-communist Russia’s first millionaires at the age of 24, German Sterligov lost no time building a financial empire with offices in Wall Street and Mayfair. Now, at 39, he has tired of life in the fast lane. He has given up the two private planes and the fleet of luxurious cars, the four-storey Moscow mansion and the Manhattan penthouse. In their place he has acquired a horse and a tractor, and moved his wife and five children into a three-bedroomed wooden house with no electricity or gas on a patchwork of fields surrounded by forbidding forest....

Clinton 'will make tens of millions' working for funds tycoon By Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 24/04/2006) Bill Clinton stands to make "tens of millions" of dollars by working for a billionaire friend who made his fortune in supermarkets. The former president will share in the profits of investment funds run by Ron Burkle. In return, he offers Mr Burkle advice and lends his reputation to the funds. He has no day-to-day role and has invested little of his own money. Bill Clinton: troubled history with personal investments There is no suggestion that Mr Clinton is doing anything wrong but...

Mikhail Khodorkovsky / Photo:Reuters “I Should Have Left Business 3 Years Ago” Created: 10.09.2004 16:37 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:37 MSK, 19 hours 26 minutes ago Jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky answers questions from readers of www.khodorkovsky.ru. In July-August of this year the Web-site invited questions to the jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky from its readers. Over the past two months the site received hundreds of letters. A list of questions was forwarded to the entrepreneur through his defense team. 1) How is it possible to amass such an enormous fortune — $15 billion — in such a short period of...

<p>British police said Tuesday they have arrested Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky at the request of Russian authorities who have charged him with fraud.</p> <p>An extradition request charges that Berezovsky defrauded the administration of Russia's Samara region while director of a company called LogoVaz between Jan. 1, 1994 and Dec. 31, 1995.</p>