NEW YORK: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, Cuban President Fidel Castro, Monaco’s Prince Albert II and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II are among the world’s wealthiest rulers, Forbes magazine reported on its website yesterday.

Featuring monarchs, presidents and other leaders, the Forbes list is topped by King Abdullah, 82, and is worth an estimated $21bn, according to Forbes. In second place, with $20bn, is 59-year-old Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, followed by United Arab Emirates President H H Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, 58, with $19 bn.

Dubai’s ruler, Prime Minister and Vice President of UAE H H Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, came in fourth, with $14bn, followed by Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, 61, with $4bn. The new Monaco ruler, Prince Albert, 48, who took over rule of the tiny principality after his father’s death last year, was in sixth place, with $1bn.

Castro, 79, came in seventh, with $900m credited to him by Forbes, which cited former Cuban officials as saying that Castro had skimmed profits from a Havana convention centre, retail conglomerate Cimex and vaccine and pharmaceutical products firm Medicuba to amass his fortune.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the 63-year-old president of Equatorial Guinea, is next on the list, worth some $600m. Obiang is followed by Britain’s 80-year-old Queen Elizabeth, who is worth $500m — not including Buckingham Palace, the crown jewels and some other heirlooms that “belong to the British nation” and are merely “entrusted to her care”.

Rounding out the list is the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix, 68, who has $270m to her name. Forbes acknowledged that the list was difficult to compile. “These fortunes are derived from inheritances or positions of power. And the lines often blur between what is owned by the country and what is owned by the individual,” it said. “Even stickier: Proving a dictator controls funds and uses them for personal gain—not for the country’s benefit,” Forbes said.