9. Barbara Davis
Barbara Davis is the widow to Marvin Davis, the billionaire founder of the Davis Petroleum who was at one time the owner of Twentieth Century Fox. When Marvin Davis died in September 2004 at the age of 79 Forbes approximated his fortune to be $5.8 billion, a fortune that he left with his wife and children. However, since 2005, the business that he left behind fell into very hard times, to the extent of the company filing for bankruptcy a few years later. Furthermore there is a serious family feud that is tearing Barbara’s family apart. Gregg Davis is said to have ripped off the family by selling the business for $150 million while its true worth was at least $1 billion. Barbara and her children have lost the billions they once had, and are at risk of losing each other as well.
8. Sam Wyly
Sam Wyly is an American businessman based in Dallas, who employed tens of thousands of employees and made billions for the people who invested into his restaurant, retail, and tech companies. Sam, together with his brother Charles, bought ranches and mansions in Aspen, set up off-shore trusts that would pay them millions for the rest of their lives, and even made charitable donations of over $67 million because of how well they were doing. At the peak of his career, Forbes estimated Sam’s wealth to be in the region of $1.1 billion, an amount that far less than 1% of the people in the world will ever have. However, today Sam Wyly is bankrupt because the IRS is after him for millions in unpaid taxes. He owes the securities and exchange commission millions because of hiding stock trades in offshore accounts, and he also has to pay his wife hefty sums annually after their divorce.
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