Five US Billionaires Who Made It To Forbes 400 Only Once

David Blech
1992: $295 MLN
In 1990, he launched D Blech & Co. By 1994 it collapsed. He is now beginning to serve a four-year sentence in federal prison for manipulating stock prices.

Walter Alessandrini
2000: $770 MLN
He joined fibre-optic equipment maker Avanex as CEO 11 months before it went public. Soon it was trading at nearly 200 times revenue.






John Chambers
2000: $1 BLN
He joined Cisco Systems in 1991; has been CEO since 1995. The year he made the 400, 80 percent of all internet traffic passed through Cisco routers.





Michael Novogratz
2007: $1.5 BLN
He was one of a group that took Fortress Investment Group public at $18.50 a share. As the stock hit $35 on its first day, the five of them became billionaires.





Mark Pincus
2011: $2 BLN
In 2011, his company, Zynga, completed the largest IPO in the tech sector since Google; it suffered losses after that. He stepped down as CEO in July 2013.

Image: Blech: Robert Caplin / The New York Times / Redux; Chambers, Novogratz, Pincus: Getty Images