#39 – Robert Addison Day Jr.
Net Worth: $730 million -27%
Last Year: $1 billion
Age: 65
Residence: Los Angeles
Source of Wealth: Financial services
The Money:
With holdings that include Florida property and financial stock, founder of Trust Company of the West could not avoid the economy? wrath. Day holds significant stake in Soci??G??ale S.A., a large French bank that bought TCW and was ravaged by the housing bust.
Buzz:
After becoming embroiled in a financial scandal in early 2008, Day kept a low profile for much of the past year. Day sold $200 million in SocGen stock shortly before the company announced big losses as a result of a rogue trader. The sale prompted inquiries by the Securities and Exchange Commission in early 2008. Day denied any wrongdoing and people familiar with situation said he was never under formal SEC investigation. The money from sale was donated to alma mater Claremont McKenna College in what is said to be the largest donation ever to a liberal arts college. Day serves on SocGen? board and is still chairman of TCW, the large money manager he founded in 1971. Also a director of Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc., an Arizona mining company that compensated him $1.3 million in 2008. Day owns more than 500 acres of Florida timberland and 1,800-acre resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. The grandson of Superior Oil Co. founder William M. Keck., he is chairman of W.M. Keck Foundation, a major philanthropy based in Los Angeles.
