Forbes reveals America's 20 richest folks

New York, Sept.18 : Microsoft owner Bill Gates, with a net worth of 57 billion dollars, remains the richest man in America despite losing his crown to Warren Buffett for a few months this spring.

According to Forbes latest list of 400 of the richest Americans, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffet, whose shares have fallen 15 percent since February, follows Gates.

Newcomers to the list include fertilizer tycoon Alexander Rovt, car dealer and art collector Norman Braman and Patr³n tequila founder John Paul DeJoria.

Mark Zuckerberg, the 24-year-old founder of social networking site Facebook, debuts on The Forbes 400 with an estimated net worth of 1.5 billion dollars. The Forbes 400 is a snapshot of estimated wealth on August 29, the day prices of publicly traded stocks were locked, reports FOX News.

The average net worth of The Forbes 400 is 3.9 billion dollars. The biggest loser this year was casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, whose fortune has fallen 13 billion dollars in the past 12 months.

Fellow casino kingpin Kirk Kerkorian lost 6.8 billion dollars this year as his stock in MGM Mirage fell 70 percent since last fall. Other losers include Min Kao of global positioning system maker Garmin (down 2.9 billion dollars), Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page (down 2.7 billion dollars and 2.6 billion dollars, respectively), eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (down 2.6 billion dollars) and media maven Sumner Redstone (down 2.5 billion dollars). This year's biggest gainer is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose estimated net worth rose 8.5 billion dollars after he bought back a 20 percent stake in his financial data and news firm Bloomberg L.P. from Merrill Lynch, finally putting a price tag on the private media outfit.

There are 42 women on the list with an average net worth of 4.2 billion dollars. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey saw her wealth increase 200 million dollars to 2.7 billion dollars.

The top 20 rich Americans are

1.William Gates III

2.Warren Buffett

3.Lawrence Ellison

4.Jim Walton

5.S Robson Walton

6.Alice Walton

7.Christy Walton and family

8.Michael Bloomberg

9.Charles Koch

10.David Koch

11.Michael Dell

12.Paul Allen

13.Sergey Brin

14.Larry Page

15.Sheldon Adelson

16.Steven Ballmer

17.Abigail Johnson

18.Jack Taylor and family

19.Anne Cox Chambers

20.Donald Bren

ANI