Estimates of Gadhafi’s $200 Billion Wealth Would Have Made Him the Richest Person in the World

The Libyan tyrant Moammar Gadhafi was thought to have hoarded billions in assets from his people but new estimates show more hidden treasures than once thought. These discoveries make Gadhafi one of the world's wealthiest leaders, and possibly the wealthiest person in the world. The Los Angeles Times on the staggering discovery:

"(Gadhafi) secretly salted away more than $200 billion in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed, about $30,000 for every Libyan citizen and double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected, according to senior Libyan officials.

The new estimates of the deposed dictator's hidden cash, gold reserves and investments are 'staggering,' one person who has studied detailed records of the asset search said Friday."

If the $200 billion estimate is true, Gadhafi would have been at his death the wealthiest person in the world, more than doubling Carlos Slim's total net worth of $74 Billion, who was deemed the richest man in the world by Forbes Magazine in 2011.

U.S. and European authorities said Friday that they intended to quickly hand over Gadhafi's frozen assets to the transitional Libyan government and the Libyan people, a third of which live in poverty.