From wealth to rags, millionaires and billionaires who have lost everything

The media love to celebrate the meteoric rise of millionaires and billionaires. It's a good story. They underline their lavish lifestyle and their business triumph. Sometimes it seems that everyone is fantastic and we miss it. Not everyone has a happy ever after story. Those who have accumulated great assets just to lose something or all of their assets is told less often. These stories about the financial demise, driven by poor investments, fraud, economic crises or personal missteps, offer valuable teachings about the fragility of prosperity. Here are the stories of some formerly prominent millionaires and billionaires who have lost everything or almost everything.

The financial increase and autumn of Sam Bankman-Brat.

Sam Bankman fried (SBF), once a crypto Wunderkind, collected and lost an amazing assets through his research FTX and Alameda. He was ultimately condemned for fraud. His career path, from a high -flying billionaire to a convicted criminal with A Fund of zerooffers a warning story of the unchecked ambition and show the laws.

After completing his end in 2014 with a physics qualification, he switched to Jane Street Capital, a quantitative trading company. His salary was probably between 100,000 and 300,000 US dollars a year. In 2017 he gave himself to crypto that Alameda research founded. By using Bitcoin Arbitrage options such as price differences between Japan and the USA, Alameda made daily profits of up to 1 million US dollars.

The start of FTX in 2019 catapulted the SBF's assets. As a CEO and majority owner, he benefited from the meteoric increase of FTX. By 2021, FTX collected 900 million US dollars with an evaluation of $ 18 billion, followed by $ 400 million in January 2022 with an evaluation of $ 32 billion.

The net assets of SBF reached a highlight of $ 26.5 billion in early 2022. Cumulatively, the career result, the salary, the commercial gain and the SBF equity profits probably exceeded an asset of 3 billion US dollars at its peak, although a lot of illiquid and crypto reviews were bound.

The collapse of FTX in November 2022 sparked the assets of SBF and marked one of the greatest wealth destruction in history. On November 6, 2022, its net assets were $ 15.6 billion per Bloomberg's billionaire index. Until November 11th, when FTX registered bankruptcy in the middle of a customer withdrawal frenzy, it was sunk to zeroPro CNN. Bloomberg described this as “one of the greatest destruction in the assets of history”. SBF was convicted in November 2023 for fraud and associated crimes and in March 2024 to 25 years in prison, with a decay of 11 billion US dollars.

Elizabeth Holmes: The Theranos Mirage

Elizabeth Holmes once built the youngest of self -made female billionaire, and built Therano's promise to revolutionize blood tests with a device that was able to carry out hundreds of tests from a single blood waste. At its peak in 2015, Theranos had a value of 9 billion US dollars, and Holmes' share of 50% was around 4.5 billion US dollars.

Studies of The Wall Street Journal The regulatory authorities showed that Therano's technology was fraudulent and achieved inaccurate results that endangered patients. The company collapsed until 2016 and Holmes' net assets fell to zero. In 2022 she was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Their history underlines the risks of the overbearing of unproven technology and the consequences of the misleading practices. According to a report by CNBC from 2021, Holmes' demise was a warning story for Silicon Valley, which emphasized how uncontrolled ambition can lead to financial and legal ruin.

Vijay Mallya, the extravagant fall of the spirits -Tycoon

Vijay Mallya, known as India's “King of Good Times”, collected a 1.5 billion dollar assets as alcohol baron and owner of Kingfisher Airlines. His extravagant lifestyle with private jets and yachts masked growing financial problems.

By 2012, Kingfisher Airlines had collected debts of over 1 billion US dollar, and Mallya has delayed loans from Indian banks. He was charged with money laundering and fraud and fled to Great Britain, where he fought against delivery.

His assets were confiscated and his assets waned. Mallya's case shows how wasteful expenses and poorly managed companies can undermine prosperity. A report on Business Insider 2020 emphasized that Mallya's failure to diversify his investments and rely on a failing airline financial collapse.

Jordan Belfort, the crash of the wolf of Wall Street

Jordan Belfort, immortalized in the film The wolf of the Wall Streetbuilt a fortune of several million dollars in the nineties in the nineties through his stock exchange machine company Stratton Oakmont. According to reports, he reported at 250 million US dollars at the age of 25 and drew yachts, medication and extravagant parties.

Be Wealth disappeared When the FBI charged him for securities fraud and money laundering for manipulating stock prices in a “pump-and-dump” program. After Belfort paid prison and a reimbursement of $ 100 million, Belfort remained little. Later he rebuilt a modest assets through writing and motivational speeches, but his story remains a strong memory of the consequences of illegal financial practices.

Bernie Madoff

Bernie Madoff, notorious for the largest Ponzi scheme In US history, a personal assets of $ 826 million before his fall from 2008. His company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, cheated investors of $ 64.8 billion and promised consistent returns through fabricated business. Madoff's assets that were bound to real estate, yachts and investments disappeared when investors demanded 7 billion US dollars in 2008 and uncovered the system in accordance with a 2020 annual report. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009. Madoff died in prison in 2021.