These Three Former Billionaires Lost All of Their Wealth – Here’s What Happened

We all love to hear the rags to riches stories in which regular people (or people who had nothing at all) fight against all the odds and end up becoming rich and successful people. These people are generally pretty popular since they know how to relate to the public and often perform acts of charity as well. However, there’s another side to this coin as well – the people who have all the wealth in the world but somehow end up losing everything they ever owned. Different businesspeople have had various reasons for going bankrupt, and we’re here to cover some of the biggest billionaires who lost their wealth.

Alberto Vilar

Alberto was hit from two sides when he was going down financially. While his company, Amerindo, which he had set up with the help of his co-founder, made big strides when it first started off, the stock market back in 2000 was pretty bad for it. However, while the company wasn’t doing too well financially, it was still worth a billion dollars and Alberto might have still been a rich man had he not delved into all sorts of fraudulent activities. One of the biggest charges against him was that of money laundering, which he had done using various donations to art galleries and opera companies. What was initially seen as a generous gesture was soon discovered to be money laundering and in 2010, Alberto received a sentence of 9 years due to his crimes. He appealed for a re-sentencing, but that was even worse for him since his jail time was increased by a year.

Sean Quinn

 Sean Quinn has had some of the worst luck that we’ve ever witnessed, and he was brought down to his knees because of that. He used to be the wealthiest person in Ireland back in 2008, and in just three years, he was left with almost nothing. The stock market crash in 2008 had everything to do with Sean’s financial failings, but this wasn’t the only event that’s to blame. A bank that held a lot of Sean’s company started failing which further hurt Sean’s standing, and eventually, things got out of control for him. He declared bankruptcy in 2012 and even had to face jail time for 9 weeks.

Allen Stanford

Although Allen was once among the richest people in the United States, greed became Allen’s undoing as he was caught in a series of fraudulent activities, including mail fraud and money laundering. The amount of money that he had stolen was over $10 billion, and when his crimes were discovered, he attempted to fly out of the country on a private jet. However, he was unable to do so and is now serving a whopping 110-year jail sentence because he pleaded not guilty to crimes he was proven to have committed.

It might be sad to see people lose it all, but illegal actions deserve the right punishments, and that means suddenly finding yourself with nothing at all. Financial crises cannot be avoided, however, and the billionaires who went broke because of one probably have a lot of regrets.