Best-Paid Hedge Fund Managers Earn More Than Some Countries' GDP, Survey Shows

The 25 best-paid hedge fund managers earned $13 billion last year.

ByABC News
May 10, 2016, 4:48 PM
Ken Griffin, founder and chief executive officer Citadel LLC, speaks at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, April 29, 2013.
Ken Griffin, founder and chief executive officer Citadel LLC, speaks at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, April 29, 2013.
Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

— -- A survey of the best-paid hedge fund managers reveals that the top earner collected more than the individual gross domestic product of some countries.

Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, made $1.7 billion last year, according to the Institutional Investor's Alpha annual survey of the highest-earning hedge fund managers.

That's more than the GDP of countries like Antigua and Barbuda, which has a GDP of $1.2 billion, according to the World Bank, and Grenada, which has a GDP of $912 million.

Five hedge fund managers earned more than $1 billion each last year, according to Reuters. The top 25 best-paid hedge fund managers were paid $13 billion in total, 10 percent more than the previous year.

Griffin, who lives in Chicago, is worth an estimated $7.5 billion, according to Forbes. He's the 157th richest person in the world.