Five Armenians on Forbes Magazine’s List of Billionaires

NEW YORK — According to tradition, Forbes magazine has released the list of the world’s richest people for the year 2015. As in the previous years, former head of Microsoft Bill Gates is still on top of the list with $79.2 billion dollars.

The list published by Forbes on March 2 includes five Armenians. Sergei Galitsky (Harutyunyan) (162nd) is the world’s richest Armenian with an estimated net worth of $8.3 billion. Other Armenians on the list include American-Armenian Kirk Kerkorian (393rd) $4.2 billion , Samvel Karapetyan (418th) $4 billion , Argentin-Armenian Eduardo Eurnekian (1006th) $1.9, and Danil Khachaturov (1190th) $1.6. Sergei Sarkisov and Nikolai Sarkisov (both ranked1465th last year) have dropped out of the ranks.

Despite plunging oil prices and a weakened euro, the ranks of the world’s wealthiest defied global economic turmoil and expanded yet again. For the 29th annual guide to the globe’s richest, the Forbes has found a record 1,826 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion a year ago. The total includes 290 newcomers, 71 of whom hail from China.

Gates is followed on the list by Mexican telecommunication magnate Carlos Alim Helu with 77.1 billion dollars and investor Warren Buffet with 72.7 billion dollars.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg moves up 5 spots to number 16, his first time ranked among the world’s 20 richest. Zuckerberg is also the leader in a youth revolution that has minted 46 billionaires under the age of 40. The youngest billionaire on the planet is Evan Spiegel, 24, co-founder of photo- messaging app Snapchat.