List Of Billionaires Who Died In The Last Year Leaving Behind Enormous Wealth

Forbes Magazine has released a list of billionaires whose deaths last year shocked many people. These victims went from being the richest in the world to ending up in the grave.

 

First in the list is 75-year-old generic-drug billionaire Bernard "Barry" Sherman and his wife, Honey found hanging beside their indoor pool. 

 

The chilling discovery was made by Toronto police late last year. Sherman was not a man who shied away from conflict; he battled competitors in court and engaged in a decade-long lawsuit with his cousins over an ownership stake in his firm, Apotex. The deaths are being investigated as homicides, but no suspects have been named.

 

His death is by far the most lurid of those of the 25 billionaires--with a combined net worth of $120.4 billion--who died in the past year. The list, below, includes the world's former wealthiest woman, L'Oréal heir Liliane Bettencourt, and 2017's oldest billionaire, David Rockefeller, a major philanthropist and the former chief of Chase National Bank. He was 101 when he died.

 

"People tell me life is short, and I say, 'Yeah, so I better get the work done,' " Sherman said in his first appearance in Forbes, in July 2000, just over 17 years before his violent death. Here's how we first covered four of the other recently deceased titans.

 

The full list of billionaires who died in the last year is below, with their date of death, age, citizenship, net worth as of March 2017 and source of wealth. 

 

Peter Alfond | July 2017, 65

U.S., $1.4 bil | shoes

 

Americo Amorim | July 2017, 82

Portugal, $4.4 bil | energy, investments

 

Belmiro de Azevedo | November 2017, 79

Portugal, $1.5 bil | retail

 

Liliane Bettencourt | September 2017, 94

France, $39.5 bil | L'Oreal

 

Arnold Clark | April 2017, 89

U.K., $1.1 bil | automobiles

 

David Consunji | September 2017, 95

Philippines, $3.1 bil | construction

 

Sanford Diller | February 2018, 89

U.S., $1.7 bil | real estate

 

Desh Bandhu Gupta | June 2017, 79

India, $4.7 bil | pharmaceuticals

 

Bruce Halle | January 2018, 87

U.S., $6.5 bil | tires

 

Dorrance Hamilton | April 2017, 88

U.S., $1.3 bil | Campbell Soup

 

Niklas Herlin | October 2017, 53

Finland, $1.4 bil | elevators, escalators

 

Henry Hillman | April 2017, 98

U.S, $2.6 bil | investments

 

Jon Huntsman| February 2018, 80

U.S., $1 bil | chemicals

 

Erich Kellerhals | December 2017,  78

Germany, $1.8 bil | electronics retail

 

Karl-Heinz Kipp | October 2017, 93

Germany, $4.5 bil | retail

 

Lu Guanqiu | October 2017, 72

China, $5.7 bil | diversified

 

Siegfried Meister | July 2017, 78

Germany, $3.8 bil | appliances

 

Samuel "Si" Newhouse Jr. | October 2017, 89

U.S., $12.1 bil | media

 

Neal Patterson | July 2017, 67

U.S., $1.5 bil | health care IT

 

A. Jerrold Perenchio | May 2017, 86

U.S., $2.8 bil | Spanish-language television

 

Leandro Rizzuto | December 2017, 79

U.S., $4.5 bil | consumer products

 

David Rockefeller Sr. | March 2017, 101

U.S., $3.3 bil |real estate, investments

 

Bernard (Barry) Sherman | December 2017, 75

Canada, $3 bil | pharmaceuticals 

 

Joan Tisch | November 2017, 90

U.S., $3.8 bil | insurance, N.Y. Giants

 

Yeoh Tiong Lay | October 2017, 87

Malaysia, $2.1 bil| construction, real estate, power