Fun Fact Friday

On billionaires

So this isn’t necessarily about a dictator. Unless, of course, you consider a billionaire oil tycoon a sort of autocrat. Fair play, if you do. You’re probably right.

Jean Paul Getty was a British industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942. When he died, he was reportedly worth more than US$6 billion - which would be over US$20 billion in today’s money. So a big baller.

Despite his vast fortune, Getty was notoriously frugal. 

This behaviour was amply demonstrated in July 1973 when Getty’s teenage grandson, Paul, was kidnapped in Rome. The abductors demanded a ransom of US$17 million (over US $100 million today). John Paul Getty Jr, the kid’s father, asked Getty Senior for the money, but the elder Getty refused. 

To be fair, the kid was quite rebellious and there was adequate reason to suspect that this was just another one of his shenanigans to extract money from the family coffers. At any rate, Getty Senior argued that if he paid the ransom, his 13 other grandchildren would also become easy targets.

That reasoning, as sound as it appeared to be, soon flew out the window.

In November 1973, the kidnappers sent an envelope containing a lock of hair and a human ear. Attached to these exhibits was a threat that they’d cut off other body parts unless they got their money.

In a negotiation masterclass that a certain South African born tech billionaire would probably have benefitted from, the Getty family agreed to pay US$3 million (about US$ 15 million equivalent). 

But here’s the thing. Getty Senior agreed to only give up US$2.2 million, the maximum tax-deductible amount at the time.

He loaned his son the other $800,000. At a 4 percent interest rate! 

At the end of it all, the ransom was paid and the kid returned. But, boy, Christmas dinner must have been awkward from then on.