Forbes rich list includes three Long Islanders

Three Long Island residents are on the new Forbes 400 list of the nation's richest people.

James Simons, 72, of East Setauket, founder and retired chief executive of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, is the Island's wealthiest man, with assets of $8.7 billion, and ranked No. 30 on the list overall, Forbes said.

Cablevision founder Charles Dolan, 83, of Oyster Bay, came in at No. 144 - in a nine-way tie for that spot with $2.5 billion - on the list. Cablevision owns Newsday. Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone, 75, a Sands Point investor, has $1.1 billion in assets and ranks No. 365 on the list.

Bill Gates, 54, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp., remains the richest American with estimated assets of $54 billion, according to the magazine, and Warren Buffett, 80, the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., ranks second with $45 billion, according to the list published Thursday. Gates and Buffett were also Nos. 1 and 2 last year.

The number of list members whose wealth declined this year is 85 compared with 314 in 2009, while wealth increased for 217 members. The total worth of the 400 rose by 8 percent to $1.37 trillion, still below the 2008 total of $1.57 trillion.

Facebook Inc. chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, 26, who is tied for No. 35 on the list, saw his wealth jump 245 percent to $6.9 billion, the largest percentage increase of anyone on the list.

California has the most people on the list, with 83, followed by New York, with 64.