From media moguls to tech startups to venture capitalists, there is certainly a sizable crop of rich people one can look at for examples of financial success. However, if there’s one thing we find more entertaining than rich people, it’s the often inevitable moment when everything goes up in smoke for them. From Elizabeth Holmes to Donald Trump to Stockton Rush, there is a bevy of different rich people whose aspirations imploded metaphorically and, in the case of the latter, literally.
10. Elizabeth Holmes
In the healthcare industry, one needn’t look far for tales of corruption and misformation – case in point, Elizabeth Holmes. A Stanford University dropout, Holmes certainly had many abuzz when she claimed that she was about to change the blood testing industry forever. She was at the forefront of what she claimed were breakthroughs in technology that could run comprehensive tests using only a few drops of blood. Her company, Theranos, which she founded in 2003, quickly gained meteoric success, reaching a mind-blowing value of nine billion.
All seemed to be going swimmingly for Holmes, that is until 2015, when things began crashing down for the once-thriving entrepreneur. A series of investigative articles and reports went public, which revealed the unsavory truth regarding Holmes, Theranos, and its widely touted technology. It was quickly made excruciatingly clear that Theranos’ main golden goose, the Edison, was far from the breakthrough device that it’d be hyped up to be by Holmes and her constituents.
It was also revealed that the company had been using standard blood testing machines for their in-house data. This proved to be the end for Elizabeth Holmes, who was no longer seen as a successful tech visionary but rather as a disappointing cautionary tale.
9. Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling
When it comes to flying too close to the sun, you can’t find quite a better example than Enron, as well as its central figures, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. For context, Enron was a corporation that dealt with electricity, natural gas, communications, as well as pulp and paper. Lay, who served as the founder and chairman, and Skilling, who served as the CEO, made Enron the gold standard for corporate success.
However, in 2001, the unsavory truth regarding Enron’s success was revealed, eventually resulting in its demise. They had been implementing a series of fraudulent practices and accounting techniques to inflate their profits, including various partnerships that were kept off of the company’s balance sheets. Additionally, these shady practices also allowed them to sweep any accrued debt under the proverbial rug, helping them maintain their smokescreen of financial stability.
Following these revelations, the sky began falling for Enron at record speed, ultimately declaring bankruptcy in December 2001. Unsurprisingly, Lay and Skilling were hit with a slew of legal ramifications for fraud, conspiracy, and insider trading. When it comes to the dirty dealings of the business world, Enron is a prime example of how badly it can backfire.
8. Adam Neumann
At first glance, Adam Neumann’s charisma was undeniable, as was his passion for his entrepreneurial work and desire to revolutionize office culture. His brainchild, WeWork, was predicated on reinventing the modern workspace, including unique floorplans, alternative desk styles, and countless other in-house amenities. For a time, Neumann’s vision saw great financial success, even reaching a peak value of $47 billion in 2019.
Unfortunately, as time passed, Neumann’s leadership and various business decisions became the subject of increased scrutiny. It seems as though Neumann’s eyes were a bit bigger than his stomach, as he pursued rapid expansion without sustainable profitability. This meant he was leasing properties at a breakneck speed all the while projecting an image of seemingly endless growth. It was revealed that the WeWork business model was predicated on long-term leases and short-term commitments to members.
WeWork’s IPO, Initial Public Offering, revealed significant financial losses, governance issues, and Neumann’s own dealings, which included conflicts of interest and a perceived lack of corporate governance. The public outcry following these revelations proved too great, leading to Neumann’s resignation from WeWork in late 2019, with the company being subsequently purchased by SoftBank.
7. Martin Winterkorn
A common trend amongst this crop of the wealthy blinded by their hubris is immense success undercut by a frequently quick fall from grace. In this case, we have Martin Winterkorn, a truly self-made man if there ever was one, working his way up the ranks within the Volkswagen Group. From 1977 onward, Winterkorn went from a specialist assistant in the research division to head of group quality assurance. Winterkorn’s engineering knowledge, as well as his commitment to product perfection, made him one of Volkwagen’s truly indispensable soldiers. This dedication to the brand resulted in Winterkorn becoming the company’s CEO in January 2007.
His time at the top saw Volkswagen reach new heights of both technological advancement and evergrowing profits, sadly this upward trend was not to last. In 2015, a rather unsavory secret was revealed to the public, specifically regarding the emissions tests for their diesel vehicles. Emissions tests, also known as smog tests, measure the levels of pollutants like hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides. It seems that under Winterkorn’s purview, Volkswagen had installed software in millions of their vehicles that manipulated emissions tests, resulting in pollution levels far beyond permissible limits. These revelations caused Winterkorn to resign from his role as CEO in late 2015, resulting in a disappointing end to his once-inspiring success story.
6. Thierry Leyne and Arnaud Mimran
In life, you need to choose your friends wisely. This is likely something that Thierry Leyne should’ve considered before choosing to forge a partnership with Arnaud Mimran.
Leyne, a very skilled financial entrepreneur, opted to join forces with Mimran, a financier and businessman, in 2013, eventually founding an investment firm known as LSK, Leyne, Strauss-Kahn & Partners. Together, the duo cultivated all manner of investments, including real estate, finance, and technology which initially resulted in ample financial success for both of them. For a time, the world was seemingly their oyster, with Leyne and Mimran seeing nothing but rampant success and financial victories.
However, what goes up must eventually come down, which things most certainly did when the truth regarding the duo’s business practices came to light. The duo began facing a siege of legal issues eventually leading to the reveal of financial irregularities and something far more distressing. It seems Mimran was at the heart of a carbon trading scam that many news outlets described as “the heist of the century.” Mimran would see himself incarcerated for his transgressions whereas Leyne ended up taking his own life in Tel Aviv at the end of 2014.
5. Travis Kalanick
Ride-sharing apps are more commonplace and widespread than they’ve ever been, due in large part to Uber and its founder Travis Kalanick. Nowadays you walk too far in a major metropolitan area without seeing an Uber-branded vehicle or one of its various competitors, including Lyft and Zipcar. However, as many would eventually come to learn, Kalanick’s aggressive vision was underscored by a rather distressing dark side.
In 2017, Uber’s reckoning arrived in the dorm of several heated allegations of varying nature and severity. Not only was the company itself hit with several accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination, but Kalanick himself was branded as an abrasive and cutthroat leader. Additionally, it was also revealed that Uber has disregarded regulations in various cities, which led to various issues with local authorities and taxi industries as well.
The final nail in the coffin was hammered in when footage leaked of Kalanick arguing with an Uber driver. With pressure mounting from investors, and the footage thoroughly exposing his problematic behavior, Kalanick finally tendered his resignation as CEO. He’d remain on the board until 2019 when he’d finally sell his remaining shares and depart Uber for good.
4. Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch, the driving force behind News Corporation, found his empire embroiled in a scandal of biblical proportions involving phone hacking that sent shockwaves through the British press and beyond.
The scandal first broke in 2011, when it was revealed that News of the World journalists had been hacking the phone of one Milly Dowler, a teenage murder victim. While engaging in this illicit hacking, they were privy to all the messages in Dowler’s voicemails, mining them for additional information. However, when they deleted some messages to free up space for more to come through, the first domino in their undoing would fall.
In addition to cruelly giving Dowler’s family false hope that she might be alive, it also exposed just how shady not only News of the World was, but all of Murdoch’s media empire as well. It was later revealed that several outlets under his purview engaged in similar practices of illegal hacking of voicemails and the private communications of various individuals, including celebrities, politicians, and other crime victims. News Corporation faced significant repercussions of both a financial and legal nature with the whole incident forever staining Rupert Murdoch’s legacy within the world of media and journalism.
3. Richard Fuld
Much has been said and written regarding the 2008 global financial crisis, the most devastating economic downturn seen up until that point since the Great Depression. It was during this period of economic implosion that Lehman Brothers, once a towering titan of the financial world, suffered a catastrophic collapse.
The person manning the helm during this tumultuous period was the CEO, Richard Fuld. Lehman’s main problems stemmed from their heavy usage of subprime mortgage-backed securities, which were hit hard by the housing market crash. If you need more information on subprime mortgages, definitely check out The Big Short directed by Adam McKay; the whole debacle is summarized by Margot Robbie in a bathtub.
Due to risky investments and an overreliance on complex financial instruments tied to the housing market, the firm’s downfall became quickly inevitable. The value of Lehman’s assets plummeted more and more as the crisis deepened, eventually finding itself submerged in debt. Despite many efforts to find a potential buyer or secure a bailout, the Lehman’s finally tapped out in September 2008, declaring bankruptcy. When the dust settled, a majority of the blame was placed on Fuld’s shoulders due to him ignoring many warnings and remaining confident the film could overcome its impending issues.
2. Donald Trump
Simply uttering Trump’s name in just about any forum is guaranteed to get many people’s blood boiling, especially nowadays. However, let’s hop into the Wayback machine and take a look at one of Trump’s non-political goof-ups regarding his business ventures, specifically his casinos.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Trump owned and operated several casinos, including Trump Plaza, Trump Marina, and the Taj Mahal, all located in Atlantic City. The latter of these three, the Taj Mahal, was even regarded for quite a while as one of the world’s most opulent casinos. Despite being labeled as a revitalization effort for the struggling resort city, issues quickly began to rise for Trump and his casinos. Due to over-leveraging and economic downturns that impacted the gambling industry, his casinos grappled with a sizable amount of debt.
These rising debts resulted in the Taj Mahal filing for bankruptcy in 1991, serving as the first of Trump’s casinos that would suffer this fate. Time marched on and in 2014, the Trump Plaza was shut down, followed by the Taj Mahal in 2016. The latter is most interesting, as 2016 was the year Trump would succeed in his bid to become the President of the United States.
1. Stockton Rush
Founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein, OceanGate specialized in crewed submersibles for tourism, research, and exploration. Rush, an avid enthusiast for undersea exploration, was even quoted as saying that submersibles were “the safest vehicles on the planet.”
That is quite the chilling quote in hindsight, especially after what happened to Rush in June 2023 with his Titan submersible. Before its descent, concerns for the Titan were already spreading, spurred on by a CBS news report that pointed out the ramshackle nature of the submersible. Chief among the concerns was that a $30 Logitech F710 wireless game controller was the only means of controlling the submersible.
Despite these concerns, on June 18, Stockton, as well as four other passengers, descended to take a look at the remains of the sunken Titanic. These passengers included Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son Suleman. Unfortunately, only a mere hour and 45 minutes into their journey, the submersible lost contact with the surface. This loss of communication was later said to have been marked by the distinct sound of something imploding. It wasn’t until June 18 that the debris of the Titan was recovered, officially confirming the demises of all five passengers, including Rush himself.