These 24 billionaires lost a combined $43 billion—and their spot among the nation’s wealthiest people.
Admission to The Forbes 400 got a little pricier this year. The minimum net worth to rank among America’s 400 wealthiest people climbed to a record-tying $2.9 billion, up $200 million from 2022. The higher bar helped knock 24 underperforming members of last year’s list out of the ranks.
Nearly all of these 24 drop-offs are poorer than they were a year ago—some to the tune of billions, or even tens of billions, of dollars. In fact, half of the combined $43 billion lost by this group comes from just two people: Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang. The co-founders of crypto trading firm Alameda Research and crypto exchange FTX flamed out last fall, when their empire crumbled and they were charged with wire fraud, money laundering and campaign finance charges. Wang, who pleaded guilty to several charges in December, is now cooperating with prosecutors against Bankman-Fried, who has denied the allegations. Bankman-Fried was worth an estimated $17.2 billion on the 2022 Forbes 400 list, published just before their house of cards collapsed, and Wang was worth an estimated $4.6 billion. Now both are likely worth much closer to zero than three commas.
They aren’t the only notable names to drop from The Forbes 400 this year. Donald Trump, who has held a spot on the list for much of the past three decades, has had an off-and-on couple of years since leaving the White House. He fell from the ranking in 2021, only to return last year as investors remained bullish about his social media platform, Truth Social. That enthusiasm is waning, and the former president’s office property portfolio is struggling too, knocking Trump’s fortune down 19%, from $3.2 billion last year to an estimated $2.6 billion today—$300 million below the cutoff.
Other notables include David Baszucki ($2 billion), founder and CEO of social gaming platform Roblox; early Facebook president and philanthropist Sean Parker ($2.8 billion) and Snapchat cofounders Evan Spiegel ($2.6 billion) and Bobby Murphy ($2.2 billion). The latter two cofounded the company when they were fraternity brothers at Stanford University. They first climbed into the ranks in 2015 at ages 25 and 27, respectively, and for years were among the youngest members of The Forbes 400.
Unlike in 2022—when technology billionaires were hit hardest amid a broad pullback in tech stocks—this year’s losses were more widely spread among several sectors. Besides Bankman-Fried and Wang, three other finance & investments mogul missed the cut, including hedge fund managers Stephen Mandel ($2.5 billion) and Scott Shleifer ($2.5 billion), as well as banking and real estate tycoon Bernard Saul II ($2.6 billion). Also missing out: consumer products billionaires including William Lauder ($2.3 billion) and Aerin Lauder ($2.2 billion), heirs to the Estée Lauder cosmetics fortune; Barbara Tyson ($2 billion) of Tyson Foods; and Kenneth Feld ($2.7 billion), whose Feld Entertainment is responsible for the Ringling Bros. circus and live events such as Disney on Ice and Monster Jam.
In addition to the 24 drop-offs, six billionaires who were on the 2022 Forbes 400 list have since died: David Gottesman, an early Berkshire Hathaway investor; Sheldon Lavin, owner of meat processor and supplier OSI Group; Sam Zell, forefather of the modern real estate investment trust; Tom Love, cofounder of convenience store chain Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores; Ted Lerner, a Washington, D.C.-area real estate developer; and Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel.
HERE’S A CLOSER LOOK AT SOME OF THIS YEAR’S NOTABLE DROP-OFFS
NET WORTHS ARE AS OF SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Sam Bankman-Fried
Net worth: Less than $1 billion (down from $17.2 billion on the 2022 Forbes 400 | Source of wealth: Cryptocurrency
Bankman-Fried—along with Gary Wang, who also dropped off the list—cofounded crypto exchange FTX before it crashed into a downward spiral in November 2022. Customers began fleeing after a Coindesk report spelled out how reliant FTX was on another of their businesses, trading firm Alameda Research, leading FTX to file for bankruptcy. In December prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried with several charges, including wire fraud and money laundering, which he has denied. Bankman-Fried lost more than $17 billion within days of FTX’s collapse.
Evan Spiegel
Net worth: $2.6 billion (down from $2.8 billion) | Source of wealth: Snapchat
Spiegel became a billionaire at age 24 and scaled onto The Forbes 400 at 25 as his instant messaging app Snapchat became a must-have. But scarcer advertising dollars, and Apple letting users opt out of targeted ads, hurt revenue. Snap’s stock is down 16% since last year’s list and shares are off nearly 90% from their September 2021 high. Cofounder Bobby Murphy (who is worth $2.3 billion) is also a drop-off.
Donald Trump
Net worth: $2.6 billion (down from $3.2 billion) | Source of wealth: Real estate
A year ago, Trump could still hope that a significant percentage of Americans would log on to Truth Social. That never happened: Only 6.5 million or so have signed up so far, as compared to X’s (né Twitter’s) 500 million–plus. Trump’s 90% stake has plummeted in value from an estimated $730 million to $100 million. Also in trouble: his office buildings, down by $170 million. One bright spot: Fewer people in the office means more on the links. Trump’s U.S. golf revenues are roughly 30% higher than pre-pandemic.
Charlie Ergen
Net worth: $2 billion (down from $4.8 billion) | Source of wealth: Satellite TV
It’s been a long slide from the 400 for Ergen, who first made the list in 1997. His fortune peaked at $20 billion in 2015, but he was still worth more than $9 billion just three years ago. The former professional gambler’s wealth shrank over the past year as shares of his satellite TV provider, Dish Network, crashed to their lowest price since the late 1990s. Customers have been fleeing Dish for streaming services, and a February ransomware attack further dented the stock. In August, Ergen announced a plan to merge Dish with Echostar, the satellite operator he spun out in 2008, in a bid to save them both.
Aerin Lauder
Net worth: $2.2 billion (down from $3.3 billion) | Source: Estée Lauder
Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder has suffered a series of black eyes this year: sales of both its skincare and makeup groups dropped, leading to a 10% revenue dip and a 58% decline in net earnings for fiscal year 2023. That has knocked shares down 37% over the past 12 months—enough to kick Lauder, the company’s style and image director who is the granddaughter of the brand’s eponymous founder, and her cousin William, who is executive chairman, out of the ranks. Her father Ronald, sister Jane and uncle Leonard also took big hits but held onto their spots.
Barbara Tyson
Net worth: $2 billion (down from $3 billion) | Source: Food processing
Tyson inherited a stake in one of America’s largest meat producers, Tyson Foods, after her husband, Randal Tyson, died in 1986. The company’s stock tumbled to a three-year low in May, when the company underperformed earnings expectations partially after drought last year killed thousands of cattle and shifted the market for ranchers, eating into Tyson’s profits. Shares are down 28% since last year’s list, pushing Tyson–who serves on the board and owns about 9% of the stock–off the list.
Bernard Saul II
Net worth: $2.6 billion (down from $3.9 billion) | Source: Banking, real estate
Saul turned his grandfather’s property management firm, B.F. Saul Company, into one of Washington D.C.’s biggest real estate empires. But shares of Saul’s shopping center REIT Saul Centers fell by 11% amid a slew of interest rate hikes in the past year. Meanwhile, the assets under management at Saul’s two investment management companies, Chevy Chase Trust Company and ASB Capital Management, have shrunk 21% and 17%, respectively, helping wipe $1.3 billion from his net worth.
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
