← Back to the front page

Historical Figures with Unforeseen Downfall and Misfortune

Khalid Elhassan April 9, 2020 33 min

Silver Thursday - United States — Nelson Bunker Hunt. Express News

36. From Billionaire to Bankrupt

Charting the Hunt brothers’ speculation saga. SD Bullion

The Hunt brothers hung on during much of the 1980s, but their luck ran out in 1988. That year, they lost a lawsuit accusing them of conspiracy related to their silver speculation. They were hit with hundreds of millions in liability and fines.

The Hunt brothers, left to right, Lamar, Nelson, and William, leaving a federal courthouse. Everything Voluntary

Nelson Hunt was hardest hit, and he ended up breaking the record for the biggest personal bankruptcy in America’s history. His assets were seized and sold to satisfy creditors, including his oil fields, house, bowling alley, and a $12 million coin collection.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.