Billionaires Still Bountiful in South Florida

By Thomas Francis Thu., Sep. 23 2010 at 9:10 AM

Categories: Celebrities, Housing Bubble, Listy Lists

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The closest you'll ever get to H. Wayne Huizenga's yacht.

The region's economy has been shaken in recent years by the housing slump and by the collapse of Ponzi schemers like Madoff and Rothstein, but South Florida is still home to at least 20 billionaires, according to the most recent Forbes list of the richest Americans.

Micky Arison of Carnival Cruises is the wealthiest Floridian, with an estimated $4.1 billion. He lives in Bal Harbour. The next three on the list are all from Palm Beach County:

* William Koch, an oil man, has a $3.4 billion empire, which he rules from Palm Beach. He's the 90th richest American.

* Terrence Pegula of East Resources, a company that invests in land for mining, checks in at No. 110 with $3 billion, tying him with Steven Spielberg. Pegula lives in Boca.

* Sports mogul Malcolm Glazer, who lives in Palm Beach, claims assets of $2.6 billion, which makes him the 136th richest American, a bit behind Oprah Winfrey's $2.7 billion and just a smidge higher than Mark Cuban's $2.5 billion.

The deepest pockets in Broward County belong to Igor Olenicoff, the real estate mogul who lives in Lighthouse Point and is said to have $2.5 billion, which is about $400 million more than the next Floridian on the list, H. Wayne Huizenga, who has long reigned as Fort Lauderdale's Daddy Warbucks.

Jeff Greene checks in at No. 221 on the list. The recently vanquished candidate for U.S. Senate has about $1.8 billion with to console himself.