The Ledger / J. Joe Ricketts & family
J. Joe Ricketts & family
◼ Origin
Founded Ameritrade Inc. in 1975 as a discount brokerage in Omaha, Nebraska, pioneering low-cost stock trading for retail investors. Grew the firm through successive acquisitions into TD Ameritrade via a 2006 merger with TD Waterhouse. Charles Schwab acquired TD Ameritrade in 2020 for approximately $26 billion.
◼ Self-Made Verdict — YES
Ricketts built Ameritrade from scratch in Omaha in 1975 with no inherited capital. His background as a Nebraska farmland salesman gave no head start in finance. The $4.1B fortune derives from decades of operating the discount brokerage he founded.
◼ Documented marks
01
Longtime Republican mega-donor; funded attacks on Barack Obama in 2012 via super PAC and supported Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's anti-union campaigns through Ending Spending, his political advocacy organization.
02
His family owns the Chicago Cubs (purchased 2009 for $845M) and co-owns Chelsea F.C. (acquired 2022); son Pete Ricketts served as Nebraska governor and is now a U.S. senator.
03
In February 2019, Splinter News published a trove of emails in which Ricketts circulated and endorsed Islamophobic content over years, including messages calling Islam 'a cult and not a religion' and stating 'Muslims are naturally my enemy.' Ricketts issued a public apology.
Omaha World-Herald: Ricketts anti-Muslim emails and apology · NBC News: Ricketts apology for Islamophobic emails
No inheritance, or primary accounts documented for this billionaire yet.
◼ List of charges
Total sentence
0–0 years
That is
0.0–0.0 life sentences
(using 78 years as one life)
At $1 million per day
J. Joe Ricketts & family's fortune would last 11 years
0.1 lifetimes of luxury — before running out.
These are moral charges, not legal ones. The actual legal system has not — and will not — bring them.
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