A Moscow-educated lawyer who apparently did prison time in his native Uzbekistan for "corruption" in the 1980s – his name was later cleared by the post-Soviet Uzbek government – Mr. Usmanov grew wealthy by leveraging Kremlin contacts to acquire former Soviet state assets on the cheap during the 1990s. He is co-owner of the Russian mining and steel giant Metalloinvest, with diverse interests in metals and natural gas. He purchased the influential Moscow business daily Kommersant in 2006. Critics say the move was to keep it in politically "safe" hands, a charge Usmanov firmly rejects. He is the second-largest shareholder in Britain's Arsenal football team, and reportedly also owns the sprawling Tudor-era estate Sutton Place, about 50 miles southwest of London, which was once owned by US industrialist J. Paul Getty. He moved up from No. 7 in last year's rankings.
(Editor's note: the original version incorrectly stated Mr. Usmanov's stake in Arsenal.)
