The biggest losers? Try 355 ex-billionaires

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New York: Carnage in economies and stock markets worldwide has united 355 of the world's wealthiest people in a new way: they're now ex-billionaires.

World's richest not so rich

Forbes magazine on Wednesday said the 355, ranging from former Citigroup Inc chief Sanford "Sandy" Weill to Russian tycoon and ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev to accused Ponzi scheme mastermind Allen Stanford have fallen off its annual survey of the uber-rich.

24 Indians make it to 'World's Richest' club

Death claimed 18 more members. Some 41 people joined the list. That left the tally of billionaires worldwide at 793, worth a collective $2.4 trillion, down from 1,125 people, worth $4.4 trillion, a year earlier.

The world's most powerful billionaires

The damage was widespread, with dropoffs including former American International Group Inc chief Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, former Walt Disney Co chief Michael Eisner, private equity investor J. Christopher Flowers, and India's Vijay Mallya, who controls Kingfisher Airlines Ltd.

Mittal, Ambani among world's most powerful billionaires

Not even the world's richest people had a great year. The collective net worth of Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway Inc Chairman Warren Buffett and Mexico tycoon Carlos Slim slid 38 percent, to $112 billion from $180 billion.

The biggest loser in dollars is Anil Ambani, chairman of India's Reliance Communications Ltd, whose net worth slid $31.9 billion to $10.1 billion. India's Lakshmi Mittal, who chairs steelmaker ArcelorMittal SA, lost $25.7 billion, while Buffett, Slim and KP Singh of India real estate developer DLF Ltd lost $25 billion each.

2008: Bad year for billionaires

By country, the billionaire roll fell to 359 from 469 in the United States, to 32 from 87 in Russia and to 24 from 53 in India. Net declines were 123 in the Americas, 102 in Europe, 81 in the Asia-Pacific area and 26 in the Middle East and Africa.

Big names, smaller fortunes

Among the now ex-billionaires, the biggest is Ramesh Chandra, the founder of debt-laden India property developer Unitech Ltd. His net worth was $9.6 billion a year ago, ranking 86th worldwide.

The next biggest dropoff is Taiwan's Tsai Hong-tu, chairman of Cathay Financial Holding Co, who with his family was worth $7.7 billion a year earlier. Following him are three Russians: Kirill Pisarev and Yuri Zhukov, who co-founded residential developer PIK Group and had each been worth $6.1 billion, and Dmitry Pumpyansky, who controls steel pipe producer TMK OAO and was worth $6 billion.

Buffett tops most generous US billionaires list

The top U.S. dropoff is Min Kao, chief executive of global positioning systems maker Garmin Ltd, who had been worth $3.1 billion. Among the other U.S. dropoffs are money manager Mario Gabelli and Mark Zuckerberg, the 24-year-old founder of social networking site Facebook.

Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP Chief Operating Officer Hamilton James also fell off. (His boss, Stephen Schwarzman, fell to $2.5 billion from $6.5 billion.)

Not everyone, of course, had a bad year.

The net worth of U.S. hedge fund manager John Paulson doubled to $6 billion, helped by a great bet against the U.S. housing market.