Rich Guys Club

Wong Kwong Yu, 41, was once one of China’s most celebrated and wealthiest entrepreneurs. He was the nation’s richest person in 2006. Now he is behind bars, sentenced last week to 14 years in jail after having been convicted of insider trading and bribery.

Another former Asian billionaire could be in even hotter water. Thailand’s former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was charged with terrorism this week. The Thai government claims he is responsible for spurring the anti-government Red Shirts during the violent chaos that inflamed the streets of Bangkok over the past two months leaving 88 dead. Thaksin denies involvement.

This isn’t the first time that Thaksin, who made his fortune in telecom, has been in legal trouble. In 2006 he was ousted from the Thai government and in 2008 he was convicted in absentia to two years in prison on corruption charges. He never made it behind bars as he was already out of the country when convicted, reportedly having fled to Dubai. But his family lost the bulk of its money, which was seized by the government. This time, if he were caught, the consequences would be graver. The former billionaire, who has told reporters from his undisclosed location that he did not incite violence, could face the death penalty.

Read More: – By Keren Blankfeld, Forbes

The description of Stanford’s mental and physical condition was contained in a motion filed by his attorneys asking a federal judge, for a third time, to grant the jailed financier a bond so he can be free while awaiting his trial. Stanford is due to go on trial in January on charges he bilked investors out of $7 billion as part of a massive Ponzi scheme.

The latest motion was prepared with the help of Harvard law professor and celebrity defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a consultant hired by Stanford.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston has denied two previous requests to grant Stanford a bond, agreeing with federal prosecutors that he is a serious flight risk. An appeals court has upheld Hittner’s rulings.

Hittner did not rule on the merits of the motion. But late Tuesday, the judge removed the motion from the record for not following court rules, including being typed in 14 point font and being double spaced, meaning it will have to be resubmitted.

In the 36-page motion, Robert Bennett, one of Stanford’s attorneys, described the financier as a healthy individual when he surrendered to authorities on June 18, 2009, the day he was indicted.

“Now, nearly one year in detention later, Mr. Stanford’s incarceration has reduced him to a wreck of a man,” Bennett wrote. “Mr. Stanford has experienced … a precipitate, severe and ongoing deterioration of his mental and emotional health caused by the conditions of his confinement.”

Bennett said Stanford can no longer see out of his right eye or feel anything on the right side of his face after he was beaten by an inmate last year.

He said Stanford is in the “throes of a major depression” which is getting worse. Bennett said Stanford falls into “mental black holes,” forgets conversations and stares blankly into space when talking to his attorneys, has an uncontrolled tremor in his left hand and seems to be in a drug-induced stupor due to antidepressants and other medications he is taking.

Read More: -The Huffington Post

By The Huffington Post

What would you do if your net worth were $22 billion? If you were Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani, you might build yourself the world’s most expensive home. As designed by Chicago architecture firm Perkins + Will, the in-progress glass-tower is estimated at $1 billion and is known to feature, at the least, a health club, multiple “safe” rooms, 3 helipads, 168 parking spaces and require 600 servants to maintain, and physically, the structure stands at 27 stories, or 570 feet tall.

According to the Mumbai Mirror, the tower will also contain:

Floor for car maintenance Sources said the Ambanis would prefer to have all their cars serviced and maintained at an in-house service centre. This centre will be set up on the seventh floor.

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