Latin America has the fastest growth rate for billionaires of any region on Earth
Latin America has the fastest growth rate for billionaires of any region on Earth
AFP
Katell Abiven, AFP
27 minutes ago
Montevideo (AFP) - They buy 10 Porsches a day and travel the world by private jet, toting their Louis Vuitton bags and leaving behind a faint scent of Chanel.
They are Latin America's super-rich, and they are multiplying faster than anywhere in the world, coveted by luxury brands keen to tap their buying power, but criticized for paying low taxes in a region plagued by inequality.
Latin America, a region of some 600 million people, is home to nearly 15,000 "ultra high net worth" individuals, or people with fortunes of at least $30 million, according to luxury industry consultancy Wealth-X.
The number rose five percent last year, while the number of billionaires rose to 151, a 38 percent increase.
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I suppose it varies from country to country in the region:
In Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico, many if not most probably fit your description, directly or indirectly. I suppose the same applies to a number of U.S. billionaires as well - to say nothing of the British Royals and many other British families that owe their fortune to the opium trade or to the proceeds' laundering.
In Chile, on the other hand, two of its billionaires are widely believed to be ODESSA (Nazi post-war investment network) beneficiaries: retail magnate Horst Paulmann, whose Cencosud empire grew from two grimy delis almost overnight (a classic sign of intervention by an angel investor) and whose father -contrary to his longtime assertions- was an SS colonel; and shipping magnate Sven von Appen (who recently declared that if President Michelle Bachelet is too bold in her reforms, "we might find another Pinochet"
.
In Argentina, some billionaire fortunes have a soap opera quality. Take the chairperson of the country's largest media conglomerate, the Clarín Group: she wrecked Roberto Noble's marriage (that was the founder), "married" him while he was under heavy sedation, and once he died (very shortly afterward), cut off his legitimate family from his fortune (they settled much later), and left the run of the company to three corporate lawyers. It certainly helped her that the dictatorship later handed her the country's largest newsprint maker (in exchange for "favorable coverage" , and that her sharpies have since ferreted almost all taxable income to Panama and Switzerland.
When Argentina's tax authority asked the FBI if they had information of what they suspected were three of the Clarín Group's Panama accounts, the FBI responded that no, it wasn't 3.
It was 11.
A common tale throughout Latin America, and a big reason the region's billionaire class is doing so well.
