President George H. W. Bush’s model and designer turned philanthropist granddaughter became “Lauren Lauren” when she married David Lauren, son of Ralph Lauren, in 2011. The union was described as the merger of two...
The youngest woman to have become a self-made billionaire ever. A former comedian and door-to-door fax machine saleswoman, Blakely founded the privately held Spanx undergarment business at the age of 27. Sales took off...
A scion of a prominent art dealing dynasty, Hillel Nahmad (or “Helly” as he’s known to his friends), is the proprietor of the Helly Nahmad Gallery. He was charged with wire fraud and bankrolling...
He’s taken action against 16 newspapers as: “If they tell lies, I sue them” and another court case resulted in Michael Winterbottom having to change the name of a film about his father, the...
A self-made mogul and former champion boxer who cannot read or write fluently. He thinks “differently” and built a £400 million fortune by creating and then selling a buy-to-let empire of almost 6,000 rental...
A modern day Robin Hood who claimed to have been “sent by God to take back some of the wealth that the outrageously rich had taken from the rest of us”. This Belfast born...
This Lancastrian tycoon transformed the Dragons’ Den with her 80s style shoulder pads and comments such as “he made my foot itch”. Thrice married Devey has five homes around the world and claims to...
A property developer extraordinaire with a “passion for deals”. He has been involved in deals involving many of London’s most expensive properties and founded the Marcus Cooper Group in 1991. Cooper purchased the capital’s...
Ranked as “the most influential Arab in the world”, Al-Waleed has at various times held investments in News Corp, AOL, Apple Inc., Motorola, Fox News, Eastman Kodak, TWA, Twitter, The Savoy, the Four Seasons...
Variously a boxer, nightclub owner, florist and criminal. Edwards became famous as one of the 1963 Great Train Robbery gang. He fled to Mexico but returned to Britain in 1966 when his £150,000 share...
Jailed for 14 years in March 2013 on charges of deception, fraud and money laundering, Di Stefano is a man who is often referred to as “The Devil’s Advocate”. He has been variously linked...
Some say he died in 2009, others, including the Serious Fraud Office, suspect he’s hiding out in the rainforests of Borneo. This bankrupted businessman was best known for drinking red wine from a teapot...
The Sunday Times describe him as a “secretive US financier” but Hersman, who is a sometime resident of London’s Bulgari Hotel is also said to have brokered the $1.6 billion buyout of Formula One...
This genius of British design was told by leading bicycle manufacturer Raleigh that his lightweight, small-wheeled bicycle wouldn’t sell in the early 1960s. He proved them utterly wrong and his work with Sir Alexander...
Well-known for their numberplates “2 BE” and “NOT 2B,” this power couple live on Cheyne Walk and are a little bit like Marmite. In Chelsea, Bourne has aroused controversy by attempting to gain planning...
Of Italian-Jewish descent, Caring is of the “supermarket-sweep” school of empire building. This billionaire started out in the rag trade but now controls the majority of the top restaurants and clubs in Central London....
She owns a controlling interest in the world’s third largest brewer and is married to the child star of Lawrence of Arabia, Michel de Carvalho. They live together in London with their five children,...
This Swiss born son of a printer has spent over £85 million buying up properties in the Henley-on-Thames area of Oxfordshire. Schwarzenbach also owns 123,000 acres in Australia, 26,000 acres in Scotland and has...
This billionaire former president of the Bank of Moscow lives in exile in London and is on the Interpol Red Notices wanted list as a suspect in a £136 million (13 billion rouble) fraud....
This billionaire was born in Damascus in 1939 and declares his loves to be music, architecture, art and horse racing. His home is the £50 million neo-Georgian mansion Tusmore Park near Bicester in Oxfordshire...
This Kentuckian buccaneer founded Sea Containers in 1965. He is best known though buying the Hotel Cipriani in Venice for less than £1 million “on a whim” and reviving the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express. A true perfectionist...
He founded Odey Asset Management in 1991 and now manages some $6.2 billion of assets. This graduate of Christ Church, Oxford was first married to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, Prudence, but after divorcing her Odey...
He co-founded City AM and was executive producer of the 2009 film Boogie Woogie. This Russian financier and lawyer led a closeted life and disappeared in March 2008. Elements of the Russian press suggest...
This stylish Anglo-Italian entrepreneur was one of the founders of Quintessentially. Charm personified, Del Bono now assists wealthy foreigners invest in London’s finest homes and businesses. His most talked about venture is a £100...
This Mayfair based property tycoon was born in Tehran and owns a Mangusta motor yacht named “Veni Vidi Vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”). His Rolls-Royce Phantom, numberplate “2V,” is often spotted outside...
“The Queen of Mean” was a chain-smoking hotelier and real estate tycoon with a reputation for tyrannical behaviour. She took the view that “only the little people pay taxes” but was investigated and convicted...
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II governed as constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states and headed the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. Supported by her gaffe prone husband, “Brenda,” as Private Eye nicknamed her, served steadfast...
Whatever she does, “The House of Hancock comes first.” This little known Australian daughter of a bush pilot and prospector is now the world’s richest woman with a worth of some £18 billion. Known...
This property developer tried to sell Britain’s ugliest crib, Updown Court at Windlesham in Surrey, for £70 million in 2008. It languished on the market for years and looked like a cross between a...
He was once engaged to Heather Mills but had a very lucky escape when she chose to marry Sir Paul McCartney instead. This Italian banker got the bargain of the century when he purchased...
This former army officer boldly led a coup d’état in Equatorial Guinea in 2004. He was imprisoned for 34 years but received a presidential pardon from President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in 2009. This Old...
The daughter of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber lives in New York and is a contributor to MSNBC. Her Single Girl’s Guide was published in both the UK and America and her debut show...
