New York, US: 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.

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.

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

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.

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 US$112 billion from US$180 billion.

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

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 US$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 US$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 US$6.1 billion, and Dmitry Pumpyansky, who controls steel pipe producer TMK OAO and was worth US$6 billion.

The top US dropoff is Min Kao, chief executive of global positioning systems maker Garmin Ltd, who had been worth US$3.1 billion. Among the other US 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 US$2.5 billion from US$6.5 billion.)

Not everyone, of course, had a bad year.

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

And New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's net worth jumped up to US$16 billion from US$11.5 billion, largely because of a change in value of Bloomberg LP, the news and data service he founded. Bloomberg LP competes with Reuters.

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