Borneo Blog

Sultan of Brunei, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, is the world’s fourth richest royal with a net worth of US$20 billion (RM66 billion), according to Forbes Magazines.

Brunei, a tiny sultanate sandwiched between Malaysia’s Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo Island, has a population of about 400,000 people.

Forbes says the sultan’s wealth is based on oil and gas reserves, “…but with oil fields set to dry up in 10 years, production has been cut. He is currently battling with brother Prince Jefri over allegedly misappropriated assets; an arrest warrant was issued for Prince Jefri this summer when he reportedly failed to appear in a U.K. court to address charges.”

He was crowned 40 years ago and is Brunei’s 29th sultan in an unbroken 600-year-old Muslim dynasty and rules concurrently as its prime minister, defense minister, finance minister and head of religion. [Source]

The Top 10 richest royals are:

#01. King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Age 80) (Thailand) (US$35 billion)

#02. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, 60 (United Arab Emirates) (US$23 billion)

#03. King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, 84 (Saudi Arabia) (US$21 billion)

#04. Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, 62 (Brunei) (US$20 billion)

#05. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 58 (Dubai) (US$18 billion)

#06. Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein, 63 (Liechtenstein) (US$5 billion)

#07. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, 56 (Qatar) (US$2 billion)

#08. King Mohammed VI, 46 (Morocco) (US$1.5 billion)

#09. Prince Albert II, 50 (Monaco) (US$1.4 billion)

#10. Sultan Qaboos bin Said, 67 (Oman) (US$1.1 billion)

There you go. Brunei Boleh, Borneo Boleh!

By the way, do you know that the word Borneo originated from the word Brunei, which itself is the name of a tree, Bruni? More in this later…

Prince Jefri, the younger brother of the Sultan of Brunei, is on the run rather than face jail for refusing to hand over over £3 billion (RM15.1 billion) of assets to the Sultanate.

Reports said the flamboyant prince was issued with a warrant of arrest by a British judge on June 11 for failing to turn up for a five-day hearing for contempt of court.

The Times reported that:

Prince Jefri, who denied any wrongdoing and said he had authority to use state funds, took his case to the Privy Council in London last year but lost.

Brunei sources say that he has since surrendered a few diamonds but held on to other assets. Brunei has adopted a hard line, applying to the High Court in London to commit the Prince to prison for contempt of court.

Friends of Prince Jefri are shocked at what they see as the harshness of the Sultan in attempting to get his youngest brother locked up.

But legal sources have always emphasised that these actions were being taken by the nation’s investment vehicle rather than the Sultan. [...]

The Prince’s friends said that Brunei’s attempt to get him jailed was “purely vindictive”, serving no purpose “other than to extract punitive revenge on your brother”.