8 billion dollars

Or rather, US$7.922 billion. That’s how much money a Punekar named Hasan Ali was allegedly worth until recently. CNN-IBN reports:

The Income Tax department claims to have traced unaccounted wealth valued at Rs 35,000 crore to accounts operated by a Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali.

If true, and if that is the sum total of Mr Ali’s wealth, he would place No. 62 in the Forbes list of the richest men in the world. What I find stunning is that with this kind of money, he didn’t simply buy himself immunity from the legal system by putting top politicians and bureaucrats in his pocket.

And on an entirely unrelated note, is it only me who finds the following line, from the Wikipedia page on the Sahara Group, somewhat amusing?

Sahara india parivar is the largest family in the world. [sic]

Such procreation must happen!

(CNN-IBN link via email from Gautam John.)