When Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak was overthrown from his kingdom after 30-years of iron-fist rule, his fortune was estimated at somewhere between US$40 billion and US$70 billion. In terms of earnings (corruption) per year, that was more than US$1 billion to US$2 billion, perhaps the most profitable job on earth. In comparison, Forbes 2011 official richest man, Mexican Carlos Slim was worth $74 billion, Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates was worth $59 billion while Warren Buffett was worth $39 billion.
In 1992, once Philippine’s powerful and dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s wife, Imelda Marcos couldn’t hide the pressure (or seeking publicity?) and claimed that her fortune came from Yamashita’s Gold – a staggering 7,500 tons of gold. The booty was estimated to be as much as $3 billion at 1940 rates, and is worth well above $100 billion today. Even when the dictator fled in a hurry in 1986, the U.S. Customs agents found 24 suitcases of gold bricks and diamond jewellery hidden in diaper bags. Marcos was easily the richest dictator during his 20-year ruling Philippine, at least during his era.
Mahathir Mohamad, the former Malaysian Prime Minister who ruled the country for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, was another dictator whose fortune was speculated to be in the billions. We may not know the exact figure but the fortune can never be lower than what Mubarak had amassed so anything between $50 billion to $100 billion is conservative figure. Now, before your jaw drops, the just captured-humiliated-shot-dead dictator from Libya, Gaddafi, was reported to be worth a mind-boggling US$200 billion (*whoa*) – instantly put the past dictators, Marcos, Mubarak and Mahathir to the hall of shame.
Col Gaddafi’s $200 billion in fortune was in the form of bank accounts, real estates, corporate investments, hidden cash, gold reserves and whatnot. If this figure is proven accurate, Gaddafi was indeed a genius – the only dictator who ripped off about $4.76 billion per year over a period of 42-year-rule. Obama administration quickly froze about $37 billion in Libyan regime accounts last spring, after they were stunned by the huge amount of discovery. Already, governments in France, Italy, and England Germany had seized control of another $30 billion. Investigators estimates that Gaddafi had also stash another $30 billion elsewhere around the globe. That’s a total of about $100 billion alone, mind you.
However, Gaddafi was said to have secretly sent tens of billions abroad for many years while making investments in nearly every major country you can possibly think of, from Middle East to Southeast Asia. Although most of the money was under the name of government institutions such as the Central Bank of Libya, the Libyan Investment Authority, the Libyan Foreign Bank, the Libyan National Oil Corp., Gaddafi and his family members could access any of the money if they desire. This raise the question of why was Gaddafi was so stupid as not to flee Libya earlier, just like how Marcos fled Philippines.
In fact, Gaddafi was so rich that he parked a personal fund of €1.3 billion alone with Caixa Geral de Depósitos, about 2% of the Portuguese bank. Known as Gaddafi Incorporated, Gaddafi family’s tentacles are everywhere from oil and gas sector, telecommunications, infrastructure development, hotels, media distribution, to consumer goods distribution and whatnot. Gaddafi often “speaks out publicly against government corruption” but at the same time distributing fortunes and granting direct access to lucrative business deals to his family members and other elite group. Gee, doesn’t this sounds like the same SOP that the present Malaysian government is adopting?
However, if there’s one mistake that Gaddafi had made resulting in his death, that is he was probably too greedy in his attempt to stay as long as possible in Libya to take all his fortunes out (instead of taking the first flight out) or hoping to win the war against the his own people. In the end, not only his corpse is decaying without a timely burial as demanded by Islamic law, a video was also released in what appears to be a person inserting a thin piece of wood inside Gaddafi’s bottom (sodomized). Heck, there was actually a spectacular of people queuing to view the decaying body of Gaddafi despite the stench, but few Libyans were troubled by the public display.
That was how much the people hate the brutal dictator Gaddafi. From the moment of his capture to the moment he was shot dead on his head to his body awaiting a proper burial, Libyan people who were subject to his 42-year of brutality actually do not mind about humiliating Gaddafi a single bit, and that speaks volume. Besides sending a strong message to the remaining dictators in the Middle East, will other dictators elsewhere such as those walking the corridors of powers in Malaysia receive such message with trembles? A of now, Gaddafi is the undisputed King of Kings, as far as nation fortune plundering is concerned.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- Mad Dog Gaddafi Captured, Humiliated & Shot Dead
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- Yes, PM Najib, You’re in Deep Shit & So Are Your Cronies
- Obama Got Osama, ID Verified and Body Buried At Sea
- Gaddafi Moved Personal US$4.8 Billion To London
- Mad Dog Gaddafi to Spook Oil Prices Up North
- Marcos, Mubarak & Mahathir – Who’s The Richest Man?