Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Net Worth: $ 15.2 billion

Primary Source: Yukos (quote), oil
Age: 40
Marital Status: Married for a second time, four children

Russia's richest person has tried his hand at a number of trades. He has worked as a carpenter, an official in the Komsomol (the Soviet Communist Party's youth organization) and as deputy head of the Russian Fuel and Energy Ministry. In 1995, his Menatep group bought control of oil giant Yukos at a fraction of its market value. Khodorkovsky has also made waves with his pen: In 1992, he co-authored (with Leonid Nevzlin, No. 18 in our list) a book titled Man With a Ruble, in which he called on Russians to come to terms with the rise of the new rich. As the Kommersant newspaper wrote at the time: "The book presents entrepreneurs as the driving force of the economy, the foundation of the state and the guarantors of society's well-being." Twelve years later, after being arrested on charges of fraud and tax evasion, Khodorkovsky picked up the pen again, publishing an essay, "The Crisis of Liberalism in Russia," in which he wrote: "For many (though certainly not all) of our entrepreneurs who made their fortunes in the 1990s, Russia is not their native country. It's just a wide-open hunting ground." Such penitence has not helped Khodorkovsky to hang on to his fortune. Since his arrest in October 2003, Khodorkovsky's net worth has dropped thanks to a decline in Yukos' capitalization.