Six Arizonans among wealthiest in the U.S.

Discount Tire founder Bruce Halle again ranks as Arizona’s wealthiest person, but the annual list of megarich Arizonans got shorter this year.

Halle, who has led the statewide list for eight straight years, was one of six Arizona multibillionaires who made it, down from seven in each of the past two years.

John Kapoor, the founder and majority shareholder of Chandler-based Insys Therapeutics, didn’t make the cut this year as a result of challenges facing his company, which has lost about one-third of its stock-market value over the past year.

Insys, which makes a powerful painrelieving opioid drug intended for cancer sufferers, has faced a slew of investigations and lawsuits over aggressive marketing tactics. Forbes calculated Kapoor’s wealth in last year’s report at $2.1 billion.

Halle placed first in Arizona and 144th overall with an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion.

He’s followed by two major shareholders of Amerco, the parent of Phoenixbased U-Haul International — Mark Shoen in 226th place with a net worth of $3.3 billion and E. Joe Shoen in 288th place at $2.8 billion.

Then came real-estate developer and Campbell Soup heir Bennett Dorrance ($2.7 billion, 302nd place), GoDaddy founder and shareholder Bob Parsons ($2.6 billion, 315th place) and Los Angeles Angels owner and former billboard magnate Arturo Moreno ($2.5 billion, 324th place).

According to Forbes, the half-dozen wealthiest Arizonans range in age from 66 for Mark Shoen and Parsons to 87 for Halle. All live in Phoenix, Paradise Valley or Scottsdale.

Overall, Microsoft founder Bill Gates topped the listed for the 24th consecutive year with an estimated net worth of $89 billion, followed by Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos ($81.5 billion), Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett ($78 billion), Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg ($71 billion) and Oracle’s Larry Ellison ($59 billion).

Nationally, the richest 400 have a record combined net worth of $2.7 trillion, up from $2.4 trillion in 2016. Kapoor was one of 169 billionaires who did not make the cut, which now is set around $2 billion and up.

President Donald Trump dropped $600 million to a net worth of $3.1 billion, owing to weakness in the New York City retail/office real-estate market and updated information on his finances, Forbes said.

Reach the reporter at russ.wiles@ari zonarepublic.com or 602-444-8616.