The US Financier and the chief executive officer of Hermitage Capital Management, Bill Browder have refuted the claim of Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, and Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, to being the world richest person is false claiming that Russian leader,  Vladimir Putin, is the world wealthiest.

Browder reportedly told senators that Putin is richer than both Bezos and Gates combined.

According to Newsweek, Browder estimated Putin’s net worth at $200bn, while Bezos and Bill are worth a combined $183bn.

Newsweek said that Browder’s company was once the largest portfolio investor in Russia and the financier was a shareholder in Gazprom, Surgutneftegas and other Russian state-run enterprises in the 1990s.

Around that time Putin reportedly made a deal with Russian businessmen that made him the “richest man in the world”.

Mr Putin’s personal fortune has been the subject of intense debate and speculation in recent years.

An official asset disclosure form, which is mandatory for all Russian government officials, shows that Putin earns $133,000 a year and has a modest apartment in Moscow.

Bezos briefly became the world’s richest person as a result of a surge in Amazon’s share price ahead of the e-retail giant’s quarterly earnings report. Shares later tailed off again, however, putting Mr Gates back in the top spot. Mr Bezos owns around 17 per cent of Amazon’s shares.

Mr Gates was also named the world’s richest person in this year’s Forbes ranking. That publication in March estimated his wealth to be around $86bn, ahead of second-placed Berkshire Hathaway chief executive Warren Buffett, whose fortune was cited to be around $75.6b.

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