Billionaire News | Celebrity Net Worth

Even billionaires are facing tough decisions in the time of coronavirus. Sir Richard Branson may have to sell as much as $400 million of his Virgin Galactic shares in order to save his business empire from the growing costs of the coronavirus pandemic.

Billionaire jeweler to the stars Nirav Modi has been on the run and seeking asylum in London for about two years. Now, he's fighting extradition to India, where he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if found guilty.

Isabel dos Santos claims the courts colluded against her and insists the charges aren't true. She said the fabricated evidence against her included a forged passport in her name, with her photos, but the signature of the late Bruce Lee. She wants her assets unfrozen.

What day is it? If the day ends in a y, there's probably another Russian billionaire and one-time friend of Vladimir Putin who has died under mysterious circumstances. This time it's Dmitry Bosov, who played hockey with none other than Vladimir Putin.

Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of his family's business, Samsung, has revealed that he has no plans to pass down the management of the conglomerate to his kids. This would end the South Korean chaebol practice of the dynastic control of a family company.

Formula 1 heiress Petra Ecclestone has to be counting her lucky stars for having divorced her ex and baby daddy, James Stunt. He's been charged with what in the U.S. would be two felony counts for money laundering and forgery.

As Jordan put it, he was more interested in Adidas than Nike back in 1984, because he simply didn't believe Nike's product was up to the standard of quality he was looking to represent.

Spielberg's multi-billion net worth is thanks to two chances he took. He and Lucas could not have predicted the success of their respective films. A theme park clause was novel at the time it was written into Spielberg's contract.

On Friday, May 1, Elon Musk tweeted "I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house."  Well, it seems he's making good on that promise – or starting to at least. He just listed two Los Angeles area mansions on Zillow for $30 million and $9.5 million.

In any case, the tweets almost certainly delayed that massive Tesla stock payday that Musk is close to securing, once Tesla's six-month market value price exceeds $100 billion.

One sector of our population has seen their net worths increase greatly at the same time as so many are applying for unemployment and/or payment protection program loans for their business during the pandemic. Who are they? The billionaires of course!

In 2010, Larry Ellison bought 98% of Lanai for $300 million and has been known ever since as a benevolent landlord to the people and businesses of Lanai. He's furthering that reputation by paying the full wages and benefits for the workers on his island while many of its businesses are shut down.

Dr. Timothy Springer is a Ph.D. professor at Harvard Medical School. He's an immunologist known for his pioneering work in discovering the first integrins. He's now become a billionaire from the surge from his stock holdings in a company developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

Being a billionaire has to be pretty great, right? How about being a billionaire AND being world famous too? That's the case for these 12 celebrities. They all have at least a net worth of $1 billion and a recognizable name and face.

Li Xiting, co-founder of Singapore-based medical devices company Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics has seen his fortune grow by about $1 billion a month this year, thanks to the ventilators his company makes and sells to countries trying to care for coronavirus cases.