Filthy Rich: Illinois Billionaires Got Wealthier During Pandemic

ILLINOIS — A financial think tank analysis released Thursday on the growth of billionaire wealth found that after seeing their fortunes steadily rise over the past three decades, the ultra-rich saw their money explode during the pandemic.

Americans for Tax Fairness found the combined wealth of billionaires in America jumped from $2.95 trillion to $4.56 trillion from March 18, 2020, to April 12, 2021. That’s an increase of $1.62 trillion, or 55 percent.

This “perversely accelerated” growth of fortunes of people who are already filthy rich came as more than 77 million Americans lost their jobs and more than 30 million Americans were sickened with COVID-19, the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group said in a news release.

The report comes a week after the release of Forbes' World’s Billionaires List, which named 2,755 billionaires from across the globe and saw 660 new names added to the list. Around 86 percent of those named on the Forbes list are richer today than they were before the pandemic.

Billionaires in Illinois whose wealth increased substantially during the pandemic include:

• Ken Griffin, owner of Citadel Securities, a hedge fund that manages $38 billion and is responsible for about 40 percent of stock trades in the country, saw his wealth grow 32.2 percent.
• Neil Bluhm, a casino magnate, saw his wealth grow 52 percent.
• Sam Zell, who made billions in real estate and private equity investment, saw his wealth grow 10.7 percent.
• Joe Mansueto, who founded Morningstar, a financial services company, saw his wealth grow 84.4 percent.
• Mark Walter, another hedge fund manager, saw his wealth grow 74.2 percent.
• Thomas Pritzker, Hyatt Hotels magnate, Gov. J.B. Pritzker's cousin, and heir to his father, Jay Pritzker's, fortune, saw his wealth grow 42.8 percent.
• Eric Lefkofsky, a venture capitalist and co-founder of Groupon, saw his wealth grow by 55.4 percent.
• Ty Warner, a toy manufacturer who started the beanie babies craze in the late '90s, saw his wealth grow by 45.5 percent.
• J.B. Pritzker, the state's governor, inherited money from his father, a Hyatt hotels co-founder and, in turn, co-founded The Pritzker Group, a private capital firm; he saw his wealth grow 3.7 percent.
• Patrick Ryan, who founded Aon Corporation, an insurance company, saw his wealth rise 18.1 percent.
• Penny Pritzker, like her brother the governor, inherited money from her father, a co-founder of Hyatt Hotels, worked her way up in the family business and started her own real estate and private investment company. Her wealth grew 21.7 percent.
• Steven Sarowitz, founder of cloud-based payroll company Paylocity, saw his wealth grow 114.4 percent.
• Justin Ishibia, a new billionaire, made the list when his brother's mortgage company, United Wholesale Mortgage, went public last year through a SPAC deal, and his stock exploded in value.
• Joseph Grendys, CEO of Koch Foods, saw his wealth grow 6.5 percent.
• Jennifer Pritzker, the last Pritzker on the list, is another of the governor's cousins, heir to the Pritzker family business and founder of a private wealth management company; her wealth grew by 5.8 percent.
• Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls and White Sox, made a fortune through a real estate tax loophole that allowed him to take tax deductions on property he sold. His wealth grew 11.8 percent.
• Matthew Rosznak, who settled insider trading allegations with the SEC, made the list for the first time after investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He claims to have given Bill Clinton and Richard Branson their first bitcoins.
• Michael Polsky, one of the country's first green energy billionaires, owns a company that builds windfarms.
• Michael Krasny, founder of Computer Discount Warehouse, was the only billionaire on the list to see his wealth decline — about 3.6 percent.
• Carl Thoma is the co-founder of Thoma Bravo, a private capital firm that buys companies, lays off their employees and sells off their assets for profits, according to multiple media reports. His wealth increased by 10 percent.
• Hartley Rogers, the last new billionaire on the list, is the managing director of Hamilton Lane, an asset management company.

The report also pointed out the explosion occurred on top of a 19-fold increase in wealth that billionaires have been experiencing for more than 31 years.

The combined wealth of billionaires in 1990 was just $240 billion, after adjusting for inflation, and the number of billionaires in the United States was smaller. Only 66 people in the country were considered billionaires in 1990. Now there are 719 — a majority of whom come from either the finance or tech industries.

Of those 719 billionaires, only six are considered “centi-billionaires” — people whose net worth is at least $100 billion.

• Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, saw his wealth increase by 74 percent during the pandemic and his net worth balloon to $197 billion.
• Elon Musk, founder and CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, saw his wealth shoot up by 599 percent in the last year, which boosted his net worth to $172 billion.
• Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, saw a 33 percent gain as his wealth rose to $130 billion.
• Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, saw his wealth rise by 108 percent to $113.5 billion.
• Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, became 50 percent richer in the last year as his wealth rose to $101 billion.
• Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, saw a 71 percent jump in his wealth that brought his net worth to $101 billion.

Americans for Tax Fairness endorses President Joe Biden’s tax plan, which would raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent and punish U.S. companies that move their headquarters outside the country for tax purposes.

The group said billionaires would indirectly pay more in taxes, as their wealth is mostly made up in corporate stock.

“It’s not just during the pandemic — billionaires have been running up the score on average Americans for decades,” Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said in a statement. “The way to reverse this trend is by making sure the wealthy, and the corporations they own, start paying their fair share of taxes. President Biden is proposing to do just that so we can finally build an economy that works for working families.”