Engaging in theft on the grandest scale, some of the world's most corrupt modern leaders have shamelessly looted their nations' treasuries to fund a life of luxury while their impoverished citizens struggled to make ends meet.

From African despots to Eastern European tyrants, read on to discover 29 of the most notorious rulers ranked in order of the total wealth they reportedly stole.

All dollars amounts in US dollars unless otherwise stated. Figures have been adjusted for inflation.

One of two Filipino leaders who milked the developing country for all it was worth, Joseph Estrada was convicted in September 2007 of netting himself in excess of $80 million via bribery and other dubious dealing. That's the equivalent of $121 million (£98m) in today's money.

His three-year presidency ended in 2001 when he was removed following mass protests. However, he was later pardoned by his successor and went on to serve as mayor of Manila.

Liberia's president from 1997 to 2003, Charles Taylor stole or diverted almost $100 million ($170m/£138m today) from the nation's coffers during his time in power. He used the money to finance everything from flash homes and cars to illegal weapons.

Largely responsible for the brutal internal conflict that ravaged Liberia in the 1990s, Taylor was also behind a number of atrocities that were committed during neighbouring Sierra Leone's civil war.

The infamous tyrant was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2012 for crimes against humanity; he filed an appeal in 2013 but this was rejected.

One of the most notorious despots in modern history, Idi Amin was president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979.

Up to 500,000 people died during his reign and gross economic mismanagement also characterised Amin's regime. While putting a figure on the total he and his associates looted is practically impossible, online estimates suggest the tyrant's fortune was at least $100 million at the time of his death in exile in 2003, the equivalent of $170 million (£138m) today.

In 2004, the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International ranked the world's 10 most corrupt leaders by order of funds embezzled. With the aforementioned Joseph Estrada placed 10th on the list, Nicaragua's Arnoldo Aléman took the ninth spot.

The president of the Latin American nation from 1997 to 2002, Aléman is said to have stolen a total of $100 million (around $174m/£141m in 2025). He was sentenced to a 20-year jail term in 2003 for his crimes, but the conviction was controversially quashed in 2009.

Ukraine's prime minister from 1996 to 1997, Pavlo Lazarenko cheated the nation out of up to $200 million, according to UN reports and Transparency International's 2004 list (he ranked eighth on the latter). That's the equivalent of $390 million (£316m) in 2025.

Lazarenko fled to America, where he later served time for his financial crimes. However, thanks to a well-funded legal defence, he remains wealthy to this day and has yet to face justice in his home country. In 2024, the US Department of Justice signalled its intent to confiscate $200 million (£162m) from the former leader to benefit Ukraine.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev was president of the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan from 2005 to 2010 when he was ousted during an uprising and forced to flee to Belarus.

Together with members of his family, the deposed leader has been accused of misappropriating up to $300 million ($432m/£350m today) from a Russian loan worth several billion that was intended to fund the building of a hydropower station and terminate the lease on a US base.

Like Idi Amin, Jean-Bédel Bokassa was behind the deaths of countless innocent civilians. He also had a penchant for raiding public funds, which saw him splashing a third of the impoverished nation's annual income on an elaborate coronation ceremony for himself in 1977. President of the Central African Republic between 1966 and 1979, he also styled himself as the nation's emperor.

He's said to have stolen at least $170 million, around $734 million (£595m) in today's money, which he spent on a host of emperor essentials, including jewels, a jet plane and prime chunks of real estate across Europe.

Ranked in seventh spot on Transparency International's list of the world's most corrupt leaders, Alberto Fujimori served as Peru's president from 1990 to 2000, a decade that reportedly saw him misappropriate up to $600 million from the country's finances. That's the equivalent of almost $1.1 billion (£890m) in 2025 money.

In 2009, the disgraced former leader was handed a 25-year jail term for murder and corruption charges. He received a presidential pardon in 2017, but his was overturned by Peru's supreme court, and Fujimori returned to prison in 2019. However, his release was approved in 2022 by the nation's Constitutional Court. Fujimori died in September 2024.

Currently living in exile in Equatorial Guinea, Gambia's fugitive former leader Yahya Jammeh is reported to have purloined at least $975 million ($1.2bn/£970m in 2025) before he fled the country in 2017 after 22 years in power.

Wanted back home for "myriad crimes", the corrupt former president spent his people's money on luxury cars, private jets and high-end real estate, including a mansion in the US that has since been confiscated.

Cuba's president from 1976 to 2008, Fidel Castro's Marxist-Leninist values based on fair distribution of wealth didn't stop him from accruing an immense personal fortune off the back of his struggling people if Forbes' 2006 estimate of his wealth is to be believed.

Back then, the business magazine pegged Castro's net worth at $900 million, the equivalent of $1.4 billion (£1.1bn) in today's money. While Castro insisted to Cubans that he lived off a modest salary, he reportedly controlled several state-backed interests, including a pharmaceuticals company and a retail chain. Forbes reported that former Cuban officials accused Castro of skimming profits from these businesses for years. 

Castro died in 2016 at the age of 90.

Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria from 2000 until December 2024, when he was overthrown by rebels and fled to Russia. Under his leadership, the nation became a totalitarian police state blighted by civil war while Assad himself became rich. After he was ousted, reports of his lavish belongings, including a luxury car collection, were widely published. 

The true extent of his wealth is uncertain. In 2022, the US State Department estimated Assad and his wife had amassed a fortune of up to $2 billion (£1.6bn), but this personal wealth is likely a tiny portion of the total. It's thought the despot took billions of dollars from the Syrian economy, though an exact figure has never been reported.

Transparency International placed Haitian dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier in sixth place on its 2004 list.

Picking up in 1971 where his despot father François 'Papa Doc' Duvalier had left off, Duvalier presided over a murderous regime until he was overthrown in 1986.

During his 15-year rule, he plundered up to $800 million ($2.3bn/£1.9bn today) from the destitute nation's coffers, including the 2025 equivalent of $12 million (£9.7m) to pay for his 1980 wedding. He returned to Haiti from exile in 2011 and died of a heart attack in 2014.

The communist leader of Romania from 1965 until his death by firing squad in the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Nicolae Ceaușescu lived in the lap of luxury while his citizens had to fight hard to put food on their tables.

Among the many extravagances that the despot and his family enjoyed were an opulent palace, solid gold cutlery, fine jewels and expensive furs. They were also said to have squirrelled away more than a billion dollars in foreign bank accounts, which would be worth over $2.5 billion (£2bn) today.

The prime minister and later president of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2017, Robert Mugabe presided over the economic collapse of the once affluent nation, which he looted heavily to enrich himself and his family.

Leaked US diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks show that the leader, who owned a number of farms, high-end residences, and other prized possessions at home and abroad, had amassed assets worth more than $1.75 billion by the turn of the millennium, the equivalent of $3.2 billion (£2.6bn) today. Mugabe was effectively forced from power in 2017, although he insisted he had resigned. He died in Singapore in 2019 at the age of 95.

Daniel Arap Moi was president of Kenya from 1978 to 2002. During his time in office, he was alleged to have funnelled somewhere between $1 billion and $4 billion into his family's business empire, gaining interests in oil companies, banks, shipping firms and much more.

Unsurprisingly one of the country's richest people, Moi was worth $3 billion at the time of his death in 2020, the equivalent of around $3.6 billion (£2.9bn) today.

Turkmenistan's leader from 1985 until his death in 2007, Saparmurat Niyazov was known for his narcissistic tendencies and eccentricities. These included renaming the month of January in his honour and erecting a $12 million (£9.7m) gold-plated statue of himself.

Reports suggest he accrued a personal fortune of more than $3 billion by siphoning off the country's oil wealth to the detriment of his people. This would be worth around $4.5 billion (£3.7bn) in 2025 money.

The supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011, Kim Jong Il is estimated to have stolen $4 billion ($5.6bn/£4.5bn today) from the nation while many of its citizens were starving to death.

The despot's so-called 'slush fund' was managed by Ri Su-yong, North Korea's former ambassador to Switzerland, who deposited the cash in clandestine Swiss bank accounts.

After allegedly clashing with Kim Jong Un over how to manage his father's money, Su-yong was reportedly executed in 2013.

Military despot Sani Abacha was the de facto leader of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998.

His time at the helm of the country was marked by widespread human rights abuses and endemic corruption.

Experts estimate that Abacha robbed the nation of between $2 billion and $4 billion (up to $7.7bn/£6.2bn today), hiding much of it in secret Swiss bank accounts.

Slobodan Milošević, who died in 2006 while on trial at The Hague for war crimes, was the leader of Serbia from 1989 to 1997.

As reported by the BBC, Milošević is suspected to have stolen up to $4 billion of public money, the equivalent of $7.8 billion (£6.3bn) today, during his time at the top. However, Transparency International suggests the figure is a more modest $1 billion, which puts him in fifth place on its 2004 list of most corrupt leaders.

Mobutu Sese Seko was president of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, from 1965 to 1997.

Just as free and easy with his people's money as the other leaders in our round-up, the autocratic leader is estimated to have helped himself to a total of $5 billion, or around $9.7 billion (£7.9bn) today.

In third position on Transparency International's 2004 list, Seko owned palaces in Zaire and grand residences in Paris and Switzerland and was partial to lavish luxuries including vintage Laurent Perrier pink champagne.

Military officer Omar Al-Bashir led a coup that overthrew the democratic government of Sudan in 1989 and served as president from 1993 to 2019 when he himself was ousted in a coup.

All in all, the wanted war criminal had stowed away $9 billion of his people's money by 2010, according to diplomatic cables shared by Wikileaks. That's around $12.9 billion (£10.5bn) in today's money.

The Sudanese authorities have since managed to recover $4 billion (£3.2bn) from Al-Bashir, his family and their associates.

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the former leader of Tunisia, is thought to have controlled between 30% to 40% of the nation's economy during his time in power.

Together with his family, he held ill-gotten assets estimated to be worth around $10 billion in 2011 ($13.9bn/£11.3bn today), the year he was ousted. Ben Ali died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2019, having escaped justice at home.

Callous and corrupt, Ferdinand Marcos was president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986.

Together with his wife Imelda, who was infamous for her vast collection of designer shoes, the despot embezzled up to an estimated $10 billion ($28.6bn/£23.2bn today) from the public purse. Marcos occupied the runner-up position on Transparency International's 2004 list.

Astonishingly, all appears to be forgiven, with the Filipino people electing his son, Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos, as president in 2022.

Suharto was president of Indonesia for 31 years until his forced resignation in 1998.

The military despot, who was named the most corrupt world leader by Transparency International in 2004, plundered up to $35 billion ($67bn/£54bn today) during his grip on power through a system that his opponents summed up as "corruption, collusion, nepotism".

One of the most monstrous dictators of all time, Saddam Hussein not only ruled Iraq with an iron fist from 1979 to 2003, he also purloined huge sums of the nation's oil income.

According to CBS News, estimates of the tyrant's misappropriated wealth stretch as high as $40 billion, translating to an incredible $68.2 billion (£55.3bn) in today's money.

Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president of Yemen from 1990 to 2012, is thought to have stolen up to $64 billion from his people during his 22 years in power. For context, that's more than double the country's current GDP, and the equivalent of $87.4 billion (£70.8bn) in 2025 money.

The explosive allegation was contained within a 2015 report presented to the UN Security Council.

The second Ukrainian leader to make our list, Viktor Yanukovych was president of the country from 2010 to 2014, when he was ousted as part of the Revolution of Dignity.

Corrupt to the core, the pro-Russia politician and his cronies are estimated to have stolen up to $70 billion ($92.8bn/£75.2bn today), money that the current government has been working hard to recover.

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was removed from power in 2011 after serving 30 years as president of the country.

According to British newspaper The Guardian, the politician relieved the Egyptian people of $70 billion ($97.6bn/£79.1bn in today's money) during his time in power, though estimates vary widely.

A report in The Washington Post suggests the sum could have been 10 times higher, while US Intelligence experts put the figure at a more reserved $5 billion (£4bn).

The leader of Libya between 1969 and 2011, Muammar Gaddafi is estimated to have accumulated a fortune that would easily have made him the richest person on the planet.

Following his death in 2011 at the hands of rebel fighters, it was revealed the dictator had channelled a staggering $200 billion into covert bank accounts, shady investments and dubious real estate deals during his 34 years in power. That's the equivalent of $279 billion (£226bn) today.

Now discover who makes the list of the richest world leaders of all time