Even when all the following people did very well and were able to generate a lot of profits in a short time, somehow they lost most of it in a short time as well. Let’s have a look at the top 10 tycoons who are not billionaires anymore.
1- J. Christopher Flowers
There’s no denying that the recent financial crisis and the economic collapse have had a terrible impact on the company of J. Christopher Flowers, whose company now is worth no more than five hundred million dollars. This is a very important downswing especially considering that eight years ago the company was worth more than two billion dollars.
2- Matthew Bucksbaum
This man was in charge of keeping and managing more than two hundred shopping centres in the USA. However, four years ago the huge empire crumbled when Bucksbaum had to face an incredible debt of more than thirty billion dollars. As you might expect, he didn’t have any other option but to declare bankruptcy.
3- David Ross
By 2008, David Boss, who is a very important businessman, reported that his company was worth more than one billion dollars. He was the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse and people claim that he had started to invest in the real estate industry with a part of his shares. Unluckily for him the value of real estates plummeted and he had to deal with a lot of problems that turned the company into a 150 million dollar business.
4- Tulsi Tanti
Tulsi Tanti is the owner of Suzlon Energy that is in charge of taking care of wind energy. By the end of the first quarter in 2008, his company was worth approximately three billion dollars. Nevertheless, as there were several reports that stated that the blades of the wind turbine were faulty, the company had to do something to solve the huge problem. At present the company is worth less than five hundred million dollars.
5- Larry Yung
Larry Young is very famous in China for being a capitalist whose companies were worth approximately three billion dollars. Nevertheless, because the company had important debts, there was a staggering curtailment in stocks and even when the company was able to get back its good reputation, Larry Yung had lost a lot of money and his company was worth only 750 million dollars.
6- Konstantin Zhevago
Konstantin Zhevago has a company that was worth more than three billion dollars but because of an impressive downfall in the value of its shares was forced to sell some stakes at really affordable prices in order to get some money back. At present Zhevago is worth more than three hundred million dollars and is a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
7- Sanford Weill
Sanford Weill is an architect of very famous financial group: Citigroup. The bank went through a very difficult financial time, which affected the value of its shares that were heightened by rumours of bankruptcy. At present, Sanford Weill is no longer a billionaire but a simple millionaire.
8- Frank Fertitta and Lorenzo Fertitta
As the United States has been deeply affected by the recent financial crisis and economic collapse, the Fertitta brothers didn’t have another option but to declare bankruptcy in the early 2000s. Not long ago Station Casinos was worth more than nine billion dollars. Nevertheless, the Fertitta brothers decided to spend more than forty million dollars on some alternative deals that were not successful; this meant that they had lost a great amount of money. Even when two years ago they were both billionaires, at present they are no longer billionaires.
9- Luis Portillo
By 2008, the company of Luis Portillo was worth more than one billion dollars. Nevertheless, he made the wrong decision to get more than 1.4 billion dollars on loans from more than ten different banks and decided to use his shares as a guarantee. Unluckily for him, he was involved in an unsuccessful deal and as he owed a lot of money he got rid of his shares. His company has a market value of no more than fifteen million dollars.
10- Bjorgflur Gudmundsson
Gudmundsson had to deal with some very important legal issues because he had been accused of fraud in the early 1980s. He was a chairman in an Iceland bank and at the same time he had the biggest amount of shares. As there were some problems, the Iceland government decided to seize the bank as Gudmundsson had no money at all to pay for his debt.
