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. 

 

U.S., $1.4 bil | shoes

 

Portugal, $4.4 bil | energy, investments

 

Portugal, $1.5 bil | retail

 

France, $39.5 bil | L'Oreal

 

U.K., $1.1 bil | automobiles

 

Philippines, $3.1 bil | construction

 

U.S., $1.7 bil | real estate

 

India, $4.7 bil | pharmaceuticals

 

U.S., $6.5 bil | tires

 

U.S., $1.3 bil | Campbell Soup

 

Finland, $1.4 bil | elevators, escalators

 

U.S, $2.6 bil | investments

 

U.S., $1 bil | chemicals

 

Germany, $1.8 bil | electronics retail

 

Germany, $4.5 bil | retail

 

China, $5.7 bil | diversified

 

Germany, $3.8 bil | appliances

 

U.S., $12.1 bil | media

 

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

 

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

 

U.S., $4.5 bil | consumer products

 

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

 

Canada, $3 bil | pharmaceuticals 

 

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

 

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