Determining the wealthiest person in an area always is tough to figure. After all, the super-rich have been known to overestimate — or underestimate — their wealth, depending on their ego or needs.
In New Jersey, you can add this to the equation: Whether the person is able to list another location as home — in order to escape our high taxes.
On Tuesday, Forbes released its annual list of billionaires — a list with 2,668 people from around the world.
Based on that list, we present the 10 richest people who either live in New Jersey or do a great deal of their business in New Jersey.
- David Tepper ($16.7 billion)
Ranked No. 103 in the world: The founder of hedge fund Appaloosa Management, Tepper arguably is the greatest hedge fund manager of his generation, Forbes writes. The longtime New Jersey resident made news when he moved to Florida in 2016 — a move that reportedly cost the state $120 million in tax revenue. He reportedly moved back to the state in 2020 (though Forbes still lists him as living in Florida). He spends plenty of time in North Carolina, too, as he owns the Carolina Panthers.
- Donald Newhouse ($14.4 billion)
Ranked No. 128 in the world: He is the second-generation head of Advance Publications, which controls NJ.com/The Star-Ledger and a host of other media properties. He lives in New York City.
- John Overdeck ($6.5 billion)
Ranked No. 386 in the world: Overdeck is the co-founder of Two Sigma, a quantitative trading powerhouse with $60 billion under management. He lives in Millburn.
- Rocco Commisso ($6.1 billion)
Ranked No. 418 (tie) in the world: He is the founder and CEO of Mediacom, a cable company headquartered in New York. He lives in Saddle River.
- Josh Harris ($5.8 billion)
Ranked No. 438 in the world: He is the co-owner of the New Jersey Devils and the Prudential Center, among other properties that are a part of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. He co-founded Apollo Global Management. He lives in New York City.
- Thai Lee ($4.1 billion)
Ranked No. 709 in the world: She is the co-founder of Somerset-based SHI, a business-to-business information technology services provider with more than 20,000 clients and $12 billion in revenue. She recently moved to Austin, Texas.
- Richard LeFrak ($3.7 billion)
Ranked No. 801 in the world: He is CEO of LeFrak Organization, which has developed and owns much of the property in Harborside in Jersey City. He lives in New York City.
- Leon Cooperman ($2.5 billion)
Ranked No. 1,238 in the world: He founded Omega Advisors. And, while he is still active, he also is actively giving his assets to charities (including a recent $100 million donation to RWJBarnabas Health). Longtime New Jersey resident now lives in Florida.
- Josh Kushner ($2 billion)
Ranked No. 1,513 in the world: Son of Charles, brother of Jared has made his fortune as founder of venture capital firm Thrive Capital, which has backed some top startups, including Instagram, Spotify and Slack. He lives in New York City.
- Jonathan Tisch ($1.5 billion)
Ranked No. 1,929 in the world: Co-owner of the New York Giants is a longtime New York resident.
For those who are curious, Elon Musk tops the list at $219 billion, followed by Jeff Bezos ($171 billion), Bernard Arnault ($158 billion), Bill Gates ($129 billion) and Warren Buffett ($118 billion).
See the complete Forbes list here.
