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Microsoft founder Bill Gates has given away $4.6 billion to charity in his largest donation since 2000.

Bill Gates remains the world’s richest person, despite giving away 64 million shares in Microsoft.

The shares are equivalent to 5% of his total fortune, currently estimated to be $89.9 billion.

Since 1994, Bill Gates, 61, and his wife Melinda have given away a total of $35 billion in cash and stocks to a range of charitable causes.

The donation was made in June but became public on August 14 following the filing of a document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bill Gates’ share in Microsoft is now just 1.3%. Prior to this, he gave away $16 billion in Microsoft shares in 1999 and $5.1 billion in 2000.

The majority of all previous donations have been made to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is primarily focused on reducing world poverty, combating infectious diseases and providing universal access to computers.

Image source Flickr

It is not known who the recipient of Bill Gates’ latest donation is, however when federal documents are filed, it usually means new money is being given to a foundation, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

In 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates and the well-known investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett created the Giving Pledge, and as of May 2017, 158 individuals or couples have agreed to contribute at least half of their wealth to charity.

This latest donation is the biggest charitable gift to have been made anywhere in the world so far this year.

The second largest was made by Warren Buffett, who donated almost $3.2 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last month.

The third biggest came from Dell Computer Corporation founder Michael Dell and his wife Susan.

In May, Michael and Susan Dell gave more than $1 billion to their foundation, which focuses on children’s issues and community initiatives.

Eva Rausing, wife of Tetra-Pak cartons billionaire Hans Kristian Rausing, has been found dead in west London.

Eva Rausing’s body was reportedly found at Cadogan Place, Belgravia.

The death is being treated as unexplained.

Hans Kristian Rausing, 49, one of Britain’s richest men, has been arrested over the death of his wife after she was found dead from a suspected drug overdose.

 

Eva Rausing, wife of Tetra-Pak cartons billionaire Hans Kristian Rausing, has been found dead in west London

Eva Rausing, wife of Tetra-Pak cartons billionaire Hans Kristian Rausing, has been found dead in west London

He was tonight being questioned by Scotland Yard detectives after the body of his American wife Eva, 48, was found at their home.

He is currently in custody at a south London police station.

A post-mortem examination of Eva Rausing’s body began at 13:00 BST at Westminster Mortuary.

Police said they searched the address and found the body after making the drugs arrest on Monday.

Officers could be seen guarding the front door of the Cadogan Place home, which was taped off.

The large terraced house is in one of London’s most expensive areas just off Sloane Street, between Knightsbridge and Chelsea.

In 2008 Eva Rausing and her husband faced drug charges after crack, heroin and 52 g of cocaine were found in their home.

Eva Rausing had been arrested after she allegedly tried to smuggle small amounts of crack cocaine and heroin into the US embassy in London.

Charges were then dropped and a caution issued instead.

In 2010 Forbes ranked Hans Kristina Rausing’s father, Hans Rausing Senior, 86, as the 64th richest man in the world, worth an estimated $10 billion.

The family made their fortune from the Tetra Laval milk carton, patented by Ruben Rausing in the 1960s.

It allows milk to be kept fresh without refrigeration.

 

Tycoon Allen Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in jail for operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of more than $7 billion.

The scheme was described as one of the largest in US history.

In court, Allen Stanford denied any guilt, telling the judge at his sentencing hearing: “I did not defraud anybody.”

Allen Stanford, a Texan banker, rose to prominence outside the US when he bankrolled international cricket competitions in the UK and Caribbean.

But after the collapse of his agreement to stage Twenty20 cricket in England, his financial empire began to crumble amid investigations by US regulators.

Forbes Magazine listed him as the 605th richest man in the world in 2006.

Allen Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in jail for operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of more than $7 billion

Allen Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in jail for operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of more than $7 billion

However, since his arrest in 2009 he has spent three years in detention after being denied bail.

Allen Stanford’s Ponzi scheme centred on his banking operation based in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua.

Some 30,000 individual investors were swindled, it was alleged. Prosecutors failed to find as much as 92% of the assets Stanford International Bank claimed to have.

In his statement in court on Thursday, which ran for some 40 minutes, he told the judge: “I’m not here to ask for sympathy or forgiveness or to throw myself at your mercy.

“I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn’t defraud anybody.”

US District Judge David Hittner, who presided over Allen Stanford’s trial, called his actions “egregious criminal frauds” during the hearing.

Two victims of the scheme spoke during the hearing, including Angela Shaw, who told the court Stanford was worse than convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff because he preyed on middle-class investors.

“He stole more than millions,” Angela Shaw said.

“He stole our lives as we knew them.”

His sentence is 40 years shorter than the jail term handed down to Bernard Madoff, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to a Ponzi scheme targeting wealthy investors.

Allen Stanford was convicted in March on 13 of 14 charges against him, despite his lawyers attempting to shift most of the blame on his chief financial officer.

Prosecutors had asked for a 230-year sentence, with defense lawyers arguing for a lenient term of 44 months.

Three other former executives at Allen Stanford’s company are awaiting trial, while a former Antiguan financial regulator is expected to be extradited to the US for related charges.

While a jury has cleared the way for access to about $330 million in stolen funds sitting in Allen Stanford’s frozen bank accounts across Canada, England and Switzerland, legal wrangling could make it years before investors recover any of that money.