Rick Ross bought a 2012 Gulfstream G550, registration number N676AS. Public records show this plane was originally acquired by Wells Fargo in 2013. It may have even been commissioned by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo sold the plane in June 2017 to an LLC called TVPX ARS INC. Rick Ross purchased the jet from that bland LLC for an unknown amount in April of this year through his Florida-based company Maybach Air LLC.

Why Do People Think He Spent $5 Billion?

Along with several photos, like the one above, in his Instagram post Rick included the following video:

At around the 30 second mark, Rick points up at a logo painted on the plane's tail and says:

"That's a $5 billion play."

I don't know what that means, but he is certainly not saying "That's a $5 billion plane," as some people misinterpreted.

How Much Does A 2012 Gulfstream Cost?

The price of a 2012 Gulfstream G550 can vary depending on a number of factors, including the aircraft's condition, airframe and engine hours, maintenance records, and overall market conditions. However, as of June 14, 2023, the average price for a 2012 Gulfstream G550 is $18,940,000. The price range for a 2012 Gulfstream G550 is between $14.5 million and $40 million.

Here are some examples of recent sales of 2012 Gulfstream G550s:

• A 2012 Gulfstream G550 with 2,800 hours on the airframe and engine sold for $19.5 million in April 2023.***This might be Rick's purchase***
• A 2012 Gulfstream G550 with 3,500 hours on the airframe and engine sold for $18 million in May 2023.
• A 2012 Gulfstream G550 with 4,000 hours on the airframe and engine sold for $16 million in June 2023.

Let's assume that first bullet point is Rick's purchase. That still does not actually mean Rick paid $19.5 million for his jet upfront, all at once. Much like a home purchase, people acquire private jets by putting 10-20% down then financing the remaining amount. Assuming Rick put down 10%, call it $2 million, and financed the remainder at 5%, his monthly mortgage to own this jet would be $184,150.

Then there are operating costs. A Gulfstream G550 typically costs $4,000 per hour to operate. If he flies his jet 40 hours per month, 480 hours per year, that would equate to $2 million per year, which is $166,000 per month.

When you include the mortgage and maintenance fees, under this scenario Rick's total costs to own and operate his private jet would be around $400,000, just ball parking.

Can Rick afford that?

We currently estimate Rick Ross' net worth to be $65 million. And that's his overall net worth (assets minus liabilities). Thanks to a growing business empire, Rick earns significant monthly income. The Rick Ross business empire now includes:

• Maybach Music Group: A record label that has signed artists such as Wale, Meek Mill, Gunplay, French Montana and Omarion.
• MMG Clothing: Ross has his own clothing line, MMG Clothing, which sells apparel, accessories, and footwear.
• Rick Ross' Wingstop: Ross has a partnership with Wingstop, a popular chicken wing restaurant chain. He owns several Wingstop franchises and has also helped to develop new menu items.
• Belaire: Ross is the co-owner of Belaire, a luxury champagne brand.

Read more: No, Rick Ross Did Not Spend $5 Billion On A Private Jet… But He Did Buy A Very Very Nice Gulfstream G550!

Cars used in actual competitive races were once destined for the scrap heap after the race was over. But according to Andrew Olson of SM Sotheby's, that has begun to change:

"These cars used to be really difficult to sell, and people were scared off by them. Now, people are recognizing their historic importance and their racing history, and their significance is finally being appreciated."

Paul-Henri Cahier/Getty Images

Ferrari has even started a special program for owners of "pre-raced" Ferrari automobiles. Corse Clienti allows members of that select clientele to race their treasures on tracks located throughout the globe with factory support, for a fee.

Without such a program, old race cars would just gather dust in the garage, since they are in the vast majority of cases not street legal. And aren't exactly known for their comfort or conveniences since they've been streamlined for maximum speed and performance in the highly specialized circumstances of competitive racing.

They're also notoriously expensive to keep in working order. But for lovers of racing, says Art Hebert of Motorsports Market, which specializes in the sale of race cars to collectors, they're a chance to own a piece of history:

"I was very typical as a kid, lusting after beautiful Ferraris and Jaguars but could never afford them. As time goes on, you raise your kids and they become self-supporting. You start thinking about: Now that I don't have all this cash going out, I've got an opportunity to relive those moments I wanted as a kid. So we buy these cars Mario Andretti or Michael Schumacher raced, and we get to have that thrill, the rush, of what it must have been like to be Schumacher at the Grand Prix — and winning."

Not everybody shares that kind of love of racing, not even all car collectors who have the money and resources to collect them in the first place. But the market for such used race cars has been trending upwards recently, like in 2017 when another car raced in by Schumacher sold for $7.5 million. That was a record at the time for a Formula 1 vehicle, but five years later it was practically doubled for yet another Schumacher Ferrari, that one selling for $15 million.

Even in the relatively lower price tiers in the field, used race cars are outselling their value estimates. A 1987 Kremer Porsche 962C recently went for over $900,000 against an estimate of $850,000, and a 1959 Lister-Chevrolet Sports Racer initially estimated to be worth $400,000 ended up selling for $423,000. Those might not seem like massive increases in value but they do show the increased interest in owning these vehicles among collectors.

And yet, that market remains, as the Bloomberg story states, "largely undiscovered," so you can expect more price records to be broken in the near future. As Olson put it:

"Why should a Ferrari F50 be worth only half the price of a Grand Prix-winning Schumacher F1 car? They built 350 Ferrari F50s, but they built eight Ferrari F-2000s. I wouldn't be surprised at all if five years from now the gap between great road cars and great Formula 1 cars has continued to widen."

There are also track-used race cars selling for much smaller amounts, so now might be a great time to invest in one even if you're not a multimillionaire collector!

Read more: Collecting Vintage Race Cars – Like Michael Schumacher's $9.5 Million Formula 1 Ferrari – Is The Latest Trend Among The Ultra-Rich

What you're about to see involves two Ferraris which have a combined value of more than $600,000. The red car is a Ferrari 296 GTB, which has a base price of $322,000. The blue car is a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, which has a base price of $309,000.

This incident took place over the weekend in a small Italian town called Osimo, which is located in the province of Ancona. According to local newspaper Ancona Today, more than a dozen fire and paramedics were called to respond to the accident.

According to Ancona Today, the two drivers were tourists. One was a 56-year-old from Holland and the other a 46-year-old from Belgium. They had apparently been racing through the rural country roads and totally misjudged a very sharp turn.

Traveling at more than 60 miles per hour, the red Ferrari is launched off road and slams head-on into the wall of a nearby villa. The blue Ferrari goes completely airborne for 3-4 seconds before dive-bombing into the wall and some bushes. Somehow everyone walked away mostly unscathed. The red car might be partially salvageable. The blue Ferrari was totally destroyed by the crash and an ensuing fire.

Start the video below at the 15 second mark (I've queued it up to that point) then pay attention to the top right of the screen a few seconds later…

And here are some photos of the aftermath:

Read more: Caught On Security Cam: The Moment Two Drag Racing Ferraris Fly Through The Air And Crash Into Italian Villa

It's a one-of-a-kind Bugatti Chiron Profilée, which was developed in late 2020, as a high-powered variant of its famous Chiron line, which has always been limited to 500 models. Unfortunately, the company realized that it was going to hit that 500 mark before the Profilée would be ready for production, but the decision was made to complete the single development model that Bugatti engineers were working on anyway and put the car up for auction.

Sjoerd van der Wal / Contributor / Getty Images

That turned out to be a wise decision, since now an unnamed bidder has paid $10.7 million (including fees) for the truly one-of-a-kind automobile. Not only is that the most ever spent on a new car at auction, but significantly more than the estimated range of $4.5 million to $6 million that auction house RM Sotheby's had expected before the bidding commenced. The previous record was held by a Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta sold in 2017 for $9 million.

The Profilée was designed to blend the high performance of the company's Pur Sport with the style of the Chiron, and as such it's the fastest accelerating Chiron ever made, going from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 2.3 seconds. With a top speed of 236 miles per hour, it's also faster than the Pur Sport, but not quite the fastest of the Bugatti brand, with some Bugatti cars reportedly boasting top speeds of 300 miles per hour.

Only the buyer of the Bugatti Chiron Profilée knows if its high-performance capabilities will actually be put to work on the road, given that it's both the most expensive new car ever sold at auction and also the last of the Bugatti gas guzzlers. Of course, even as the last gas-powered Bugatti ever sold, it will not be the last to be delivered, since the company reportedly has backlogs going all the way through 2025.

Read more: The Last Solely Gas Powered Bugatti Just Sold For A Record $10.7 Million

Launched in 2018, Hans-Peter keeps it primarily in the Caribbean… where I hope he also keeps a strong insurance policy!

On the morning of February 24, 2021, patrons eating breakfast at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin watched in utter shock and horror as this happened:

Here it is from another angle:

Ouch ouch ouch.

The yacht careened into the dock TWICE in a few minutes after the on-board computer system malfunctioned, sending the automatic navigation into haywire mode.

Here's another angle from above:

Fortunately, even if Hans-Peter Wild isn't fully insured, with a net worth of $3 billion I'm sure he can afford to cover all the damage his lil yachty caused.

How Did Hans-Peter Wild Make His Fortune?

I'm glad you asked because it's a really interesting story.

In 1931, a decade before he was born, Hans-Peter's father Rudolf Wild founded a natural food ingredient company that he initially named Zick-Zack Werk. After a few years of operating, he renamed the business WILD and moved operations to Heidelberg, Germany. WILD found early success in manufacturing ingredients for non-alcoholic natural beverages. Juices, basically.

WILD soon specialized in manufacturing the ingredients which would then be used by other companies to make everything from ice cream to drinks. WILD was just like a drop-shipper for other brands.

In the mid-1960s, WILD invented an innovative system where the drink liquid could be injected by assembly line machines directly into awesome little plastic pouches. This made mass-manufacturing exponentially easier.

In 1967 WILD – by now one of the world's largest natural ingredient companies in the world – decided to jump into the business of making their own drink brand. Obviously, whatever they came up with would be injected into the company's awesome little plastic pouches.

After two years of product research and testing, in 1969 the company was satisfied with a set of ingredients for their new fruity drink brand. When brainstorming potential brand names, a long-forgotten brilliant marketing person imagined sipping the drink on a sunny day while relaxing on an Italian island. Tapping into that emotion, they landed on the name Capri Sonne. "Sonne" is the German word for sun. So perhaps you know the brand better as…

Capri Sun

While WILD was creating what would arguably become the greatest drink of all time, Hans-Peter was not actually working for the family business. Prior to finally joining WILD in 1974, he earned an undergrad degree, a law degree, a business degree and a PhD. He then spent four years working in the shipping department of a company called Diersch & Schroder.

Hans-Peter landed at WILD in 1974 with the explicit goal of turning Capri Sun into a global brand.

It took about twenty years, but he Hans-Peter achieved that goal. By 1991 Capri Sun was the market leader in Europe for non-alcoholic natural beverages.

In 1994, Capri officially became the market leader in the US for the first time.

(Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Selling Out

Hans-Peter took over as Chairman and CEO of Wild upon his father's death in 1995. The company's global dominance continued for another two decades.

In July 2014 American multinational food processing company Archer-Daniels-Midland acquired Wild Flavors GmbH for $3 billion, in an all-cash deal.

Hans-Peter earned $2 billion from the sale. The remaining $1 billion went to his mother and some siblings.

The one brand that did not come with the sale to ADM? Capri Sun.

At some point years ago, Capri Sun was spun-off as an independent company. Today Hans-Peter privately owns 100% of Capri Sun through his Swiss-based Capri Sun Group Holding. Though, technically, the company is somewhat more of a licensing firm. For example, Capri Sun is exclusively distributed in North America as a partnership with Kraft Heinz. In most of Europe, the drink is distributed by Coca-Cola. In Mexico, Mondelez. In Japan, the Ezaki Group. Etc.

So there you have it. Today you learned that Capri Sun earned someone enough money to own a turquoise yacht with a helipad. He also owns a professional rugby team. But more importantly he owns a $100 million yacht that I like to think is stocked with an ungodly amount of Capri Sun.

Oh and one more thing – I had an idea for Hans-Peter:

If the lower compartments of "Go" are flooded, I suggest sticking a giant straw in the bottom to suck it all out. Definitely more efficient than trying to suck it out from the top.

Read more: Video Captures Moment $100 Million Yacht Owned By Capri Sun Billionaire Crashes Into Caribbean Yacht Club – Yes. Capri Sun Made Someone A Billionaire.

The good news for Andrew is that we all now definitely believe his incredible car collection was indeed real.

The bad news?

The collection was reportedly just seized by police in Bucharest, Romania.

It is being widely reported that Romania's Asset Recovery and Management Agency has seized 29 different "movable assets" from the Tate brothers, located at various locations throughout Romania.

The seizure apparently includes a Rolls-Royce, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz that were seen being towed away to an undisclosed government storage facility.

Other cars reportedly seized include a McLaren 765LT, an Aston-Martin Vanquish S and a Ferrari 812 Superfast (pictured below being towed away):

DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP via Getty Images

The total value of the seized cars isn't known with 100% certainty. The press release from Romanian authorities says the total value of the cars and other assets (specifically watches and international currencies in various sums, according to the press release) seized, comes to €3,636,000. That's roughly $4 million US dollars.

The Tate brothers and two other individuals were arrested last month on charges of human trafficking that Tate has denied. Their appeal to be released from their 30-day arrest warrant was then denied by a judge.

Romanian authorities have not revealed exactly why the cars have been seized or how they fit into the ongoing police investigation of Tate, but the BBC reported the possibility that the assets might be used as collateral against potential compensation claims from Tate's alleged victims.

Tate's big claim to fame is that he was once kicked off the British reality show "Big Brother" after footage surfaced that appeared to show him beating a woman with a belt. Since then, he has become a controversial media personality known for outrageous misogynistic statements. His arrest came shortly after his well-publicized Twitter dustup with climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Read more: Police Seize Andrew Tate's Supercar Collection And Other Assets Valued At Almost $4 Million

Auction house RM Sotheby's has christened this once-in-a-lifetime grouping of automotive excellence the Gran Turismo Collection, saying it represents 50 years of the cream of the crop in automobile design and engineering, from a 1971 Lamborghini Miura SV to a 2022 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+:

"Fittingly, the collection of cars presented started 25 years ago with the acquisition of the [1991 Ferrari F40], an early indicator of the performance theme that runs through the selection of cars. The consigning collector always searched for the best examples available at the time of purchase, often retaining the cars that were ordered new from the factory. The F40 was a single-owner example at the time of purchase."

The Gran Turismo Collection was clearly assembled by a collector for whom price was no object, with an eye for collecting some of the most coveted jewels of the automotive world. If you love Ferraris, your mouth will water at not just the aforementioned F40 but the 288 GTO, the F50, the Enzo, and the LaFerrari, a set within the larger collection that RM Sotheby's says "is arguably the most sought-after quintet in the automotive world."

(Photo by Martyn Lucy/Getty Images)

That's not to sell short the Bugatti supercars represented in the collection:

"Bugatti has an extraordinary history of reaching automotive pinnacles, surpassing the realms of possibility, sometimes at the expense of its survival. The first incarnation of the marque produced design masterpieces, and its 1990s revival fulfilled this historical expectation with the EB110. The Super Sport was a model that truly achieved technical greatness, and its grandson, the Chiron Super Sport 300+, took engineering achievement to an unthinkable level of producing speeds previously reserved for jets."

Audis, Lamborghinis, Jaguars and more make up the Gran Turismo Collection, and it's hard to imagine that all of these cars belong to a single person – or that he's willing to part with them all at one time. But that's what's going to happen on November 5th in London's Marlborough House, when the collection hits the auction block and we'll know for sure the true market value of this virtually priceless assemblage of automobile royalty.

Read more: A $45 Million Car Collection Belonging To An Anonymous Owner Goes Up For Auction

We know about this purchase because just 13 day ago, on September 16, Ernie took to Instagram to announce his new acquisition:

"Only 300 miles on it… Time too add to it!":

https://www.instagram.com/p/CikrcFWu5h2/

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

Following along via Instagram account, @lambo9286, we can see how over the next 11 days Ernie went everywhere in the new P1.

On Saturday morning he drove the car to downtown Naples for brunch:

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

Ernie proudly showed off how the McLaren looked in his garage next to his $500,000 Rolls Royce Phantom (this will be important in a minute):

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

On Monday September 19, he used the P1 for a "Whole Foods run."

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

On Tuesday night, September 20, Ernie drove the P1 to dinner.

On Friday night he showed the P1 off, once again in downtown Naples.

Ernie doesn't appear to stray very far from his home area:

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

As you know, alarm bells about Hurricane Ian's looming impact on Florida's gulf coast began to ring earlier this week. Evacuations were recommended.

To prepare, Ernie took the P1 to the store on Tuesday afternoon. He once again captured the moment, with the caption:

"My hurricane supply car"

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

What you see in the above photo is how Ernie's P1 looked on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 27.

Here is how the Ernie's P1 looked less than 24 hours later after Hurricane Ian laid a direct hit on the Naples:

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

I did a little bit of digging and found Ernie's home in Naples. It is oceanfront. As Hurricane Ian made landfall, the water level in places like Naples and Ft. Myers rose SIX FEET above the normal high tide. For any home near the ocean, disaster was unavoidable.

Here's what Ernie's garage looked like as water rushed in:

I feel sorry for this guy man, He just bought that McLaren P1, 300 miles on it, and it got washed out by the hurricane pic.twitter.com/lBDNIdykEK

— Thunder! (@ThunderStreamer) September 29, 2022

According to subsequent Instagram posts from Ernie, the water level rose to the point where it created enough force to physically suck both the Phantom, which I just learned is also brand new, and the P1 straight out of the garage and onto the streets of his neighborhood:

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

And here's a video showing the P1 after it was pushed out into the streets:

A McLaren P1 floating in Florida during the hurricane pic.twitter.com/PmEnHiBh0k

— Giuseppe Mercadante (@itsmercadante) September 29, 2022

Late on Thursday Ernie added one more photo to Instagram. The caption says it all:

"My P1 being held up by a toilet"

 

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A post shared by Ernie (@lambo9286)

Ernie. My man. Judging by your Instagram account, you appear to be quite wealthy. Even so, as the great Sean Connery exclaimed in the extremely great 1996 film, "The Rock":

I hope you're insured!

Read more: Video: Hurricane Ian Sucks Brand New $2 Million McLaren P1 Out Of Garage In Naples Florida

In case my puns were not enough of a giveaway, a James Bond-themed superyacht called "007" hit a bit of a rough patch  in waters off the coast of a Greek beach. The 160-foot superyacht, which is reportedly owned by a yet-to-be-named Swiss businessman, apparently had a GPS malfunction. The GPS malfunction caused the vessel to navigate to within just 50 feet of the shore where it hit rocks and started taking on water before capsizing then sinking.

Greek coastguard answered the distress call and subsequently rescued five passengers who were stranded just off the beaches of Kolona Bay on the island of Kythnos. At the time of the rescue the boat was already capsized. Within just a few hours it was fully submerged.

A drone captured the insane scene from above:

The red barrier you see around the yacht in the video above is an anti-pollution barrier laid out by the coast guard in case any of the ship's fuel begins to leak. Thankfully, the boat's fuel tank did not puncture at any point and there was apparently no damage to the local coastline.

Before sinking, 007 was a five-cabin vessel that could comfortably sleep up to 11 passengers and a light crew. As you can see in the video above, the boat also features a helipad.

Here's what she looked like in better times, back in June 2020:

Read more: Sunken, Not Stirred: Video Shows James Bond Themed Superyacht "007" Sinking Off The Coast Of Greek Beach After GPS Malfunction

Record prices were set for a Bugatti EB110, a Lamborghini Countach LP500, A Ferrari F40, a Ferrari F512M and, a personal favorite, a Ferrari F50.

If you're a guy between the ages of 35 and 45, there's a very good chance you grew up absolutely drooling over the Ferrari F50. You may have had an F50 poster on the wall or a model F50 on your desk. I had both.

A total of 349 F50s were produced between 1995 and 1997. Why 349? Because in order to generally be considered "ultra-rare," a model's total production count can't exceed 350. So Ferrari chose one less than 350. And of the 349, only 55 F50s were built to American specs for the US market.

The Ferrari F50's posted sticker price was $475,000, which is around $876,000 in today's dollars. But you couldn't simply walk into a dealership and plop down a half million in cash to drive off with one. Ferrari hand-picked the lucky 349 people who received F50s. Buyers had to be known and liked by the company. Which meant they had to already own a bunch of Ferraris. Therefore, the true "get in" price was a couple million bucks and years of showing the powers-that-be back in Italy that you were going to treat this work of art with the respect it deserved.

You also didn't buy the car. F50 owners were locked into a multi-year lease to prevent buyers from flipping them right away.

(Photo by Martyn Lucy/Getty Images)

Mike Tyson's F50

The Ferrari that was sold at auction in Monterey over the weekend is chassis #104220. According to its auction listing page, this model was completed on February 13, 1996. It is one of the 55 F50s that were built for the US market.

After being completed, this F50 was delivered by Ferrari of North America to Beverly Hills Sports Cars, which then passed it on to a luxury car broker named Nadir Amirvand. Amirvand quickly found an eager buyer named…

Mike Tyson.

Tyson, who had JUST been released from a four-year prison stint, was certainly a known-buyer to the Ferrari bosses back in Italy. Over the course of his meteoric boxing career, Mike put together a world-class car collection that included a half-dozen Ferraris and around 100 cars in total.

Unfortunately, Mike's lavish spending outpaced his earnings and by 2003 he had declared bankruptcy. After earning over $300 million in the ring, according to his 2003 bankruptcy filing Mike was $23 million in debt.

Perhaps in anticipation of his pending financial problems, Mike sold his F50 in 2001 to Kevin Marcus, and early employee of a pre-Google search engine called InfoSpace. Kevin went to work at InfoSpace in 1996, straight after college. He even slept on the office floor for a period because he couldn't afford an apartment in Seattle.

InfoSpace went public on December 18, 1998. The share price ended its first day at $46.72 a share. As a result, Kevin and fellow ground-floor employees were instant millionaires. Kevin was 23 years old.

As the dotcom bubble expanded, by March 2000 InfoSpace's share price soared to an all-time high of $1,200 per share. At that level, Infospace had a market cap of $31 billion.

In June 2002, two years after the stock hit $1,200 and a year after Kevin bought his F50, the dotcom bubble had burst and Infospace's stock price had fallen to $2.67 a share.

In 2005 Kevin sold his F50 to a collector in Atlanta for an undisclosed price. A few additional owners ensued before this weekend's auction, as did a handful of extremely expensive services. Today the Ferrari has 6,200 miles.

When the final gavel struck on Sunday, Mike Tyson's Ferrari F50 sold for…

$4,625,000

Though that's a bit less than the $5 million the auction house projected, it's about $20,000 more than the previous record for an F50 which was set in March 2022.

The new owner has not been revealed yet. To quote the great Shaggy, unfortunately, it wasn't me.

Congrats to you whoever you are!

Read more: An Ultra-Rare Ferrari F50 That Was First Owned By Mike Tyson Just Punched Out A Record Price At Auction