Italian billionaire heirs Augusto & Giorgio Perfetti have a net worth of $6.3 billion as of June 2016, according to Forbes. They are the owners of the private company, Perfetti Van Melle, the world's third largest confectionery manufacturer. Their family began making a fortune by producing chewing gum in Italy, which the American soldiers brought overseas during World War II. The company began in 1946 in a small town near Milan through their father, Ambrogio, and uncle, Egidio. They started selling the Brooklyn gum, which is named after the Allied troops in the mid-1950s. The company has grown ever since and the product is still popular these days.

In 2001, it acquired Netherlands-based Van Mell. It became the candy and gum giant that sold $2.9 billion worth of sweets in 2013. It now has 19,000 employees in more than 39 countries around the world. Among their top-selling brands include Mentos, Airheads and Spain’s Chupa-Chups, which they acquired in 2006. The Perfetti brothers, who are media-shy, now live in Switzerland and they no longer run the business.