Donald Trump wants everyone to know that he’s a billionaire. He’s suing an author who dared claim that Trump was worth as little as $150 million. That won’t get anyone on the Forbes 400 list , and Trump has to be there in order to be Trump. The surest way to make the list is to be the founder of a huge and successful public company, a la Bill Gates and Larry Ellison, because then the value of the person’s stock holdings is known to the world. Of those with private wealth, some desperately want to make the list (like Trump), while others would just as soon stay as low profile as possible.
Trump’s case is wending through the courts, and, well, his method of valuation isn’t like that that taught in business schools. At the same time his lawyers have been arguing, several college fundraising offices were contacted by bank officers offering checks from an anonymous donor that the colleges could keep if they agreed to not only keep the donor anonymous, but also not make attempts to find out who the donor is. Almost $20 million has been donated so far. And, thousands of people who thought they were millionaires, or even billionaires, have found that they have little left, thanks to Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud. (more…)
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