Under a strong people’s pressure Ben Ali of Tunisia and Mobarak of Egypt had to leave their beloved palaces and run away from those who just wanted to tear them up to small pieces.

Unfortunately, new authorities will not be able to get all their money back they stored in advance outside of the countries. Kyrgyzstan still tries to find the Bakievs’ treasures.

Another unfortunate is that we still have this kind of rulers in many countries around the globe. They keep enriching day after day and enjoying the power. Handelsblatt, leading German language business newspaper, has counted former and current leaders’ wealth and rated them according to how big is their wallet. (Note: One of the Central Asian leaders is closing the rating. Guess who and find the answer by reading this piece to an end).

So the Top 3 is as following:

1. King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia with more than $40 billion. Oil rich country can afford monarchy’s whims. Forbes reports approximately $1 billion a day from oil exports (as of 2008) which automatically brings the King to the magazine’s The World’s Richest Royals list.

2. Hosni Mubarak, ex-President of Egypt, with around $40 billion. ABC News indicated that experts believed the personal wealth of Mubarak and his family to be between US$40 billion and $70 billion founded on military contracts made during his time as an air force officer. Britain’s Guardian newspaper also reported that Mubarak and his family might be worth up to $70 billion due to corruption, kickbacks and legitimate business activities.

3. Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, with $20 billion and whose famous for his vast automobile collection of 3,667 cars, which included unique modifications of Ferraris and Bentleys, worthy over U.S.$789 million.

President of the United Arab Emirates and emir of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan is on the 4th position with $15 billion. Another “ex” in the list is a former President of Tunisia Ben Ali is #5 with around $10 billion. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir owns $9 billion and is the 6th.

According to Handelsblatt, the absolute monarch of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is not as rich as his President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (#4) – his position is #7 with $4 billion. Moroccan King Mohammed VI (#8) has as much as $2,5 billion and is “only” $100 million ahead of Sheikh Khamad ben Djassem al Tani of Qatar (#9 with $2,4 billion).

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev is closing the list of the German newspaper with $1,1 billion. A bit surprising since Nazarbayev is believed to have benefited from oil contracts and “special relations” with businessmen, including a Kazakh-Israeli businessman Alexander Mashkevich. Or maybe he already had transferred his money to family members’ account to escape the cliché of a money-obsessed politician. Moreover, no one still knows how much money of the Kazakh President is stored in Kazakh banks and private treasuries.

Even though other Central Asian leaders are not in this list, analysis of facts, along with a wide range of rumors about Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan and Emomali Rakhmon of Tajikistan create a picture of an “unjust” approach of the German newspaper – they all must be in those lists. To let their people know how rich is their President. To see and make conclusions. Make conclusions and let them be heard by those whose rule is coming to an end, hopefully…