14 craziest ways billionaires Donald Trump, Bill Gates, J. Paul Getty and Howard Hughes have splurged money – a US$36 million tea cup to writing your name large enough to read from space
From employing someone just to collect basketballs that go overboard from your superyacht to making sure your grandson’s ransom money is tax-deductible, these are some of the most eccentric ways billionaires have frittered away their fortunes
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor”. Unfortunately, often the people chasing money and splurging it aimlessly are the ones who have the most of it. Here we have a list of funny, weird and downright outlandish tales of how billionaires have made a fool of themselves or proven how money is often in the hands of the most undeserving.
But it’s not all bad in the big, bauble-filled world of billionaires. For a little balance, we’ve added a couple of examples of commendable ways that the rich have looked out for the little guy.
Aristotle Onassis covered his yacht’s bar stools with whale foreskin
You may be a billionaire but you’ve got nothing on Aristotle Onassis – who offered the ladies the world’s finest champagne and ... a very special vantage to enjoy it on. The Greek shipping magnate used whales’ foreskins as seat covers on all his bar stools.
J. Paul Getty negotiated a ransom for his kidnapped grandson
One would think that money is no object for a rich man. But the same can’t be said about the man who was cheap enough to install a payphone for his guests at home.
Imagine his horror when he heard his grandson John Paul Getty III had been abducted and the kidnappers had issued a ransom note asking for around US$17 million. He had 13 other grandchildren who could also become kidnap targets if he paid so he negotiated with them, leaving his grandson in the hands of the kidnappers in Italy’s Calabrian mountains for months. After they sent him one of the boy’s ears, he offered US$2.2 million – the largest sum that was tax deductible – which they accepted and the boy finally released.
Raj Rajaratnam paid Kenny Rogers US$4 million to sing The Gambler