Sonia Gandhi among richest world leaders: report

[Edevelop]

NEW DELHI: According to a report in the Huffington Post, some world leaders may be richer than most people might imagine.

The list puts Russian Prime minister at the top, with a net worth of $40 billion, followed by the King of Thailand at $30 billion and the Sultan of Brunei at $20 billion.

A surprising memeber of the club is India's Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress Party, who is 12th with a reported $2 billion net worth, and is believed to be richer than British Queen Elizabeth II, Sultan of Oman Qaboos bin Said and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

According to India's National Election Watch website of the Association for Democratic Rights, Gandhi had, during the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, declared assets worth Rs.1.38 crore, just over $250,000. She also declared that she neither owned a car nor had a house in India.

The Huffington Post compared each country's GDP per capita juxtaposed with a leader's personal net worth, illustrating the growing disparity between a country's elites and its average citizens.

The a significant fraction of the list is dominated by leaders from the Middle East, with seven of the 20 leaders belonging to that region.

The HuffingtonPost report does not clearly state how it calculated the figures, but states that it based the figures on "available data".

Sonia Gandhi among richest world leaders: report - DAWN.COM

 

[Guynextdoor2]

Huffington Post is gonna have one hell of a problem with this report. There is no 'publicly available' source that justfies this except one lame blog where the nos. have been pulled out of their @$$. Swiss Banks don't let these kinds of details out that freely.

ON CUE: Huffington POst' Apology

Editor's Note: Sonia Gandhi and the former emir of Qatar Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani have been removed from this list. Gandhi was originally included based on a listing on a third party site which was subsequently called into question. Our editors have been unable to verify the amount, removed the link, and regret any confusion. Qatar's emir was succeeded by his son Tamim in 2013.

 

[livingdead]

original article posted and discussed.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

Said third party site was basically

original article posted and discussed.

Sonia Gandhi: Huffington Post Retracts Wealth Claim

 

[Kaniska]

I am not sure abt Mrs Gandhi...But i have been told in my school days that Motilal Nehru who was one of the founder of Indian Congress has so much of money that he can buy India 7 times with his wealth....So it is not surprising that If Mrs Gandhi inherit the name money from their forefathers....
Politically although i do not support her...But off late, Mrs Gandhi earned lot of respect in Indian politics..

 

[Devil Soul]

She inherited most of her wealth from her late hubby,, Right???

 

[KRAIT]

#LooteriBahu Hahaha...

 

[adwityagrata]

Only 2 Billion $ for Sonia ? At last count Sonia Gandhi's front man Hassan Ali had 8 Billion $ in CASH in just one account in the UBS AG bank, Zurich. He has several other foreign accounts. He had not filed income-tax returns since 1999. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) started investigation into suspected money laundering.

In January 2007, raids by the income-tax department revealed Ali had US$ 8 billion deposited in just one account in the UBS AG bank, Zurich. When the Swiss authorities demanded relevant documents to furnish further information the government provided forged documents. The Swiss authorities did not assert that the account did not exist. It demanded authentic documents. These were not provided. Under the fiction that Hassan Ali was a mere tax evader and not indulging in any criminal activity the government failed to pursue the case with Swiss authorities.

Lastly, late finance minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee suddenly disclosed in 2009 that the US$8 billion in deposits had been withdrawn from the Swiss account and the government had no knowledge where the money was stashed.

ED has evienced that Hassan Ali held a secret meeting with Congress politicians including the Political Secretary to the Congress President. This was stated in the Maharashtra assembly by the opposition and subsequently confirmed after investigation by the state police. The question was posed: “During his interaction with Hassan Ali was (Congress Political Secretary) Ahmed Patel representing himself or his boss, (Congress President) Sonia Gandhi? If he was representing himself why has Sonia Gandhi not sacked him? If he was representing the Congress President how does Sonia Gandhi explain her party’s links with the nation’s biggest money launderer who is being protected by the Finance Minister?” There was no response in word or deed to the question raised. It is fair to infer therefore that Ahmed Patel was not acting singularly but representing his boss, Sonia Gandhi.

Poor Huffington post had assigned only a measly 2 billion to Sonia Gandhi .......... GoI has made her 8 Billion $ disappear

 

[Guynextdoor2]

HuffPost removes Sonia Gandhi from list of richest leaders, expresses 'regret' | NDTV.com

 

[adwityagrata]

Some more details about the mysterious Hassan Ali and his 8 Billion $

 

[IndoCarib]