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Pablo Escobar, worth an estimated $3 billion in 1989, had his own prison built, with a waterfall and a football pitch. in 1993 police traced a phone call that ran past two minutes, and he died in a shootout on a rooftop in Medellín.
Forbes first listed him among the world’s billionaires in 1987, and in 1989 estimated his wealth at about $3 billion. one estimate put the Medellín cartel’s income at around $420 million a week.
his brother Roberto, who kept the books, said the cartel spent about $2,500 a month on rubber bands and wrote off roughly 10% of the cash every year to rats and water damage. his son Sebastián said Pablo once burned about $2 million to keep his daughter Manuela warm while the family hid in the mountains.
in 1991 he surrendered under a deal of five years at most and no extradition to the United States. the prison, La Catedral, was built to his own specifications. it had a football pitch, a jacuzzi, a bar, a waterfall and a telescope pointed at his family’s home in Medellín.
in July 1992, after reports that he had four of his own men killed inside, the government ordered him moved to an ordinary prison. he refused and walked out through a section of wall built to be kicked open. then came about 16 months on the run, hunted by a 600 man unit called the Search Bloc. by the end he reportedly had no men and no money.
he kept in touch with his family by phone, pretending to be a journalist and keeping every call under two minutes. on December 2, 1993, a day after his 44th birthday, one call ran longer. police traced it to a house in Medellín and tried to arrest him. a gunfight broke out, and he died on the roof. how exactly he died is still disputed, and his family says he shot himself.
five years in a prison built to his own design: a deal or a joke?
Elizabeth Holmes became the youngest self-made woman billionaire at 30 with a $4.5 billion fortune. Walgreens opened 40 Theranos centers. in 2022 she was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
she dropped out of Stanford in 2004 after two years and started Theranos. the company raised more than $700 million from investors, Oracle founder Larry Ellison among them, and reached a valuation of more than $9 billion.
the pitch was one device. she told investors it could detect conditions like cancer from a single drop of blood and that the company offered more than 200 tests. the company was later found to be running tests on other companies' machines.
the partners signed anyway. Walgreens put in a $40 million convertible note and paid a $100 million innovation fee. Safeway agreed to a $350 million deal. Walgreens later closed its 40 centers.
Forbes had counted her fortune at $4.5 billion. later it put the number at zero. she owned about half of the company's stock, and the investors had to be repaid first.
in January 2022 a jury convicted her on four counts: one of conspiracy and three of wire fraud. she was found not guilty on the patient-related charges. in November 2022 the judge sentenced her to 11 years and 3 months, plus three years of supervised release.
she and Ramesh Balwani, her former business partner, were also ordered to pay about $452 million in restitution. nearly $398 million of it was attributed to 12 investors.
on May 30, 2023 she began serving the sentence at a minimum security women's prison camp in Texas.
a $4.5 billion fortune at 30: genius or just the right story?
Krynex retweeted
Allen Iverson earned about $154 million from the NBA, lost over $1 million in a single night in Atlantic City and traveled with up to 50 people. in 2012 a judge ordered his bank accounts seized over an unpaid jewelry bill.
he also made an estimated $60 million from endorsements. in 2001, after he won MVP, Reebok replaced his 1996 contract with a new one. it paid $5 million to $10 million a year while he played, $800,000 a year for life, and set aside a $32 million trust fund payable on his 55th birthday in 2030.
he gave friends and family houses, cars, boats and vacations. reports say he spent about $10,000 a month each on clothes, restaurants and groceries.
in December 2012 he told a court his income was $62,500 a month. his expenses were $360,000 a month, and about $125,000 of that went to mortgages and creditors.
the jewelry bill began with Aydin & Company, a Georgia jeweler that sued him in 2010 over $375,000. he never answered the lawsuit. with interest and fees the default judgment reached about $860,000.
during his divorce his wife asked for half of the lifetime payments and half of the trust fund.
in 2015 he went on CBS This Morning and called the rumors that he was broke a myth.
in 2017 his Atlanta-area mansion went into foreclosure after he defaulted on a $1.2 million mortgage. it was listed at $4.5 million. in 2019 it sold for $725,000.
$62,500 a month in and $360,000 out: bad advisors or bad habits?
Allen Iverson earned about $154 million from the NBA, lost over $1 million in a single night in Atlantic City and traveled with up to 50 people. in 2012 a judge ordered his bank accounts seized over an unpaid jewelry bill.
he also made an estimated $60 million from endorsements. in 2001, after he won MVP, Reebok replaced his 1996 contract with a new one. it paid $5 million to $10 million a year while he played, $800,000 a year for life, and set aside a $32 million trust fund payable on his 55th birthday in 2030.
he gave friends and family houses, cars, boats and vacations. reports say he spent about $10,000 a month each on clothes, restaurants and groceries.
in December 2012 he told a court his income was $62,500 a month. his expenses were $360,000 a month, and about $125,000 of that went to mortgages and creditors.
the jewelry bill began with Aydin & Company, a Georgia jeweler that sued him in 2010 over $375,000. he never answered the lawsuit. with interest and fees the default judgment reached about $860,000.
during his divorce his wife asked for half of the lifetime payments and half of the trust fund.
in 2015 he went on CBS This Morning and called the rumors that he was broke a myth.
in 2017 his Atlanta-area mansion went into foreclosure after he defaulted on a $1.2 million mortgage. it was listed at $4.5 million. in 2019 it sold for $725,000.
$62,500 a month in and $360,000 out: bad advisors or bad habits?
MC Hammer earned about $33 million in 1991 and spent it on a bowling alley at home, 17 cars and 21 racehorses. five years later he filed for bankruptcy owing almost $14 million.
his 1990 album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em sold more than 10 million copies in the US and spent 21 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200. his fortune was once estimated at around $70 million.
the house sat on 12.55 acres in Fremont. it had a recording studio, a movie theater, tennis and basketball courts and a guardhouse. estimates of what it cost him run from $12 million to over $30 million. some of the horses were reportedly valued at almost $1 million each.
the staff cost even more. reports put it at around 200 people at once, between $500,000 and $1 million a month. after the peak the income fell, but the payroll stayed the same.
on April 1, 1996 he and his wife Stephanie filed for Chapter 11 in federal court in Oakland. assets of about $9.6 million, debts of almost $14 million, more than 200 creditors. nearly $800,000 was owed to the IRS and more than $500,000 to California.
the house was listed at $6.8 million. in August 1997 it sold for $5.3 million.
$33 million in one year and bankrupt in five: bad spending or bad luck?
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, estimated by Forbes at $1 billion, escaped a maximum security prison in 2015 through a 1.5 km tunnel that opened in his cell shower. four years later he was sentenced to life plus 30 years and ordered to forfeit $12.6 billion.
Forbes put him on its billionaires list in 2009 and kept him there through 2012. in 2013 it dropped him, saying it was no longer confident enough to call him a billionaire. the $12.6 billion order is more than 12 times that estimate.
a former lieutenant, Miguel Angel Martinez, testified at the trial that Guzman kept a private zoo with lions, panthers and tigers, plus a small train for visitors. he also described a $10 million beach house in Acapulco and up to $10 million a month arriving by private jet. the defense said Martinez was unreliable because of his own substance use.
Guzman had escaped before. in 2001 he got out of a Mexican prison in a laundry cart. in July 2015 he stepped into the shower of his cell at the Altiplano prison, out of view of the cameras, and went down a hole about 10 meters deep. the tunnel had lights and ventilation. officials found a motorcycle on rails inside it, which they believe was used to move tools and dirt. 18 prison employees were taken in for questioning.
six months later Mexican marines found him in Los Mochis. he was extradited to the United States in 2017. in February 2019 a New York jury convicted him on all 10 counts after a three month trial. prosecutors said he was a principal leader of the Sinaloa cartel, with evidence covering 25 years.
on July 17, 2019 the judge gave him life plus 30 years. he serves it at the Supermax prison in Colorado, where inmates spend 23 hours a day in a cell 7 by 12 feet.
a private zoo and a train for guests, then a 7 by 12 foot cell: was it worth it?
Krynex retweeted
Mickey Rooney said his own stepson kept food and medicine from him and took his ID so he couldn't travel. In 2013 the stepson and his wife agreed to a $2.8 million judgment in his lawsuit over 10 years of abuse.
At 90 he told the U.S. Senate that when he asked about his own money, he was told it was none of his business.
He had been the No. 1 box-office star in America from 1939 to 1941. He made more than 300 films over almost 90 years. Late in life he trusted his finances to his stepson, Christopher Aber, the son of his eighth wife.
In February 2011 Rooney got a restraining order against him. Aber denied everything. Two weeks later Rooney sat in front of a Senate committee. "My money was taken, misused," he said. "I was told it was none of my business." "I was eventually and completely stripped of the ability to make even the most basic decisions."
In April 2014 Rooney died, owing medical bills and back taxes. His estate was valued at $18,000, and the public was asked to chip in.
No. 1 at the box office in 1939. $18,000 when he died.
Was it a family looking after an old man, or a family that simply helped itself?
Krynex retweeted
Leona Helmsley, a New York hotel owner with a fortune of more than $5 billion, left $12 million to her dog and cut two of her grandchildren out of her will.
her empire included more than 30 hotels, among them the Helmsley Palace on Madison Avenue, 51 floors and over 1,100 rooms. her husband Harry died in 1997 and she inherited a fortune of more than $5 billion.
in 1983 the couple bought Dunnellen Hall, an $11 million mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. part of an $8 million remodel was billed to the hotel companies as a business expense. federal agents later found more than $4 million of personal spending charged to the companies.
at her trial a former housekeeper, Elizabeth Baum, testified that Leona told her “we don’t pay taxes. only the little people pay taxes.” in 1989 she was convicted of tax fraud and related counts, fined more than $7 million, and in April 1992 she began 18 months in federal prison.
she died in 2007 at 87. her will left her dog Trouble $12 million. a Manhattan judge cut that to $2 million and reportedly gave the two grandchildren about $6 million. the dog’s care was reported to cost around $190,000 a year, $100,000 of it for security. Trouble died in 2011 at 12.
most of the estate went to a trust for dogs, estimated at $5 to $8 billion. its 2003 mission statement listed two goals, helping poor people and caring for dogs. unnamed sources later said she deleted the first one about a year later.
$12 million for a dog and nothing for her grandchildren: spite or a joke?
Leona Helmsley, a New York hotel owner with a fortune of more than $5 billion, left $12 million to her dog and cut two of her grandchildren out of her will.
her empire included more than 30 hotels, among them the Helmsley Palace on Madison Avenue, 51 floors and over 1,100 rooms. her husband Harry died in 1997 and she inherited a fortune of more than $5 billion.
in 1983 the couple bought Dunnellen Hall, an $11 million mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. part of an $8 million remodel was billed to the hotel companies as a business expense. federal agents later found more than $4 million of personal spending charged to the companies.
at her trial a former housekeeper, Elizabeth Baum, testified that Leona told her “we don’t pay taxes. only the little people pay taxes.” in 1989 she was convicted of tax fraud and related counts, fined more than $7 million, and in April 1992 she began 18 months in federal prison.
she died in 2007 at 87. her will left her dog Trouble $12 million. a Manhattan judge cut that to $2 million and reportedly gave the two grandchildren about $6 million. the dog’s care was reported to cost around $190,000 a year, $100,000 of it for security. Trouble died in 2011 at 12.
most of the estate went to a trust for dogs, estimated at $5 to $8 billion. its 2003 mission statement listed two goals, helping poor people and caring for dogs. unnamed sources later said she deleted the first one about a year later.
$12 million for a dog and nothing for her grandchildren: spite or a joke?
Krynex retweeted
An AP news tape dated February 3, 1998, the day Texas was set to execute her, shows a 38-year-old woman on death row, calm, sometimes smiling. Fourteen years earlier she had killed two people with a pickaxe.
The woman was Karla Faye Tucker. On June 13, 1983, high on drugs, she and a friend broke into a Houston apartment and killed Jerry Dean and Deborah Thornton. The next morning, according to the Texas attorney general's office, she told people she had felt sexual gratification with every swing. Years later she took it back.
In jail she became a Christian. Pope John Paul II and Pat Robertson asked Texas to spare her. The parole board voted unanimously against it.
In the video below, you see her talking about her own execution date, her voice even.
"If I go home February 3rd," she says, "don't take that as God not answering our prayers."
Asked if there is a place for mercy the way Texas law is written today, she says, "I don't think so."
At the end, she says, she will be thinking about heaven and her family, and wishing she could give everybody a hug.
Deborah's brother, Ron Carlson, was raised by his sister after their mother died. He wanted revenge for years, then forgave Tucker. "If there's only going to be one person in heaven," he says, "it'll be her." He watched the execution as one of her invited witnesses.
Doug Wead, a Bush family friend, says Governor George W. Bush told him, "You're not going to like my decision," and, when Wead hoped he was sleeping, answered: "I never have a problem sleeping." Bush refused a 30-day stay.
At 6:45 p.m. on February 3 she became the first woman executed in Texas since 1863. Her last words included an apology to both families.
That night Deborah's husband, Richard Thornton, told reporters that justice was complete, that his wife would deal with Tucker on the other side, and "I promise you, it won't be pretty."
Years later Carlson told a rally he had prayed for closure at that execution, and found out there is no such thing.
Deborah's husband and her brother watched the same woman die, so who got it right: the man who called it justice, or the man who forgave her?
Krynex retweeted
Nickelodeon offered Jennette McCurdy $300,000 to stay quiet about a man she calls the Creator. She says he rubbed her shoulders while she was too scared to say stop.
Her mother, she says, gave her "exams" of her private parts in the shower until she was 17.
She says he also encouraged her to drink when she was underage. About her mother, she told ABC: "I absolutely felt violated."
Acting was her mother's dream, not hers. She went to her first audition at 6, and by 11 she was paying the family's bills. Her mother, she says, "conditioned my anorexia."
Her mother died of cancer in 2013, and the anorexia turned into bulimia.
When Sam & Cat was canceled, Nickelodeon called the $300,000 a "thank you gift." The condition was that she never talk publicly about her time there. She wrote that it felt like hush money. Nickelodeon told ABC it had no comment.
She said no, quit acting, and wrote a book called I'm Glad My Mom Died. It went to No. 1 on the New York Times list.
$300,000 to stay quiet. A No. 1 bestseller for talking.
"I think I've chosen a path of integrity," she said. "And it hasn't always been easy."
Would you have turned down $300,000 to tell the truth?
Krynex retweeted
Pablo Escobar, worth an estimated $3 billion in 1989, had his own prison built, with a waterfall and a football pitch. in 1993 police traced a phone call that ran past two minutes, and he died in a shootout on a rooftop in Medellín.
Forbes first listed him among the world’s billionaires in 1987, and in 1989 estimated his wealth at about $3 billion. one estimate put the Medellín cartel’s income at around $420 million a week.
his brother Roberto, who kept the books, said the cartel spent about $2,500 a month on rubber bands and wrote off roughly 10% of the cash every year to rats and water damage. his son Sebastián said Pablo once burned about $2 million to keep his daughter Manuela warm while the family hid in the mountains.
in 1991 he surrendered under a deal of five years at most and no extradition to the United States. the prison, La Catedral, was built to his own specifications. it had a football pitch, a jacuzzi, a bar, a waterfall and a telescope pointed at his family’s home in Medellín.
in July 1992, after reports that he had four of his own men killed inside, the government ordered him moved to an ordinary prison. he refused and walked out through a section of wall built to be kicked open. then came about 16 months on the run, hunted by a 600 man unit called the Search Bloc. by the end he reportedly had no men and no money.
he kept in touch with his family by phone, pretending to be a journalist and keeping every call under two minutes. on December 2, 1993, a day after his 44th birthday, one call ran longer. police traced it to a house in Medellín and tried to arrest him. a gunfight broke out, and he died on the roof. how exactly he died is still disputed, and his family says he shot himself.
five years in a prison built to his own design: a deal or a joke?
Krynex retweeted
In May 2025, Warren Buffett ended 60 years at the top of Berkshire Hathaway in front of 40,000 people. Not even his own successor knew it was coming.
In the video below, he announces it live, and the room gives him a standing ovation.
He said only two of his 11 directors knew, his children Howie and Susie. Greg Abel heard it for the first time sitting on the stage next to him.
Abel became CEO on January 1, 2026. Buffett stayed on as chairman, but said the final word now belongs to Greg.
Buffett took over a failing textile mill in 1965. He turned it into a company worth over $1 trillion.
Now Berkshire is sitting on about $335 billion in cash, and for the first time it’s someone else’s job to spend it.
Can anyone really replace Buffett, or is Berkshire’s best era over?
Save the video, this is a moment people will look back on, and follow for more money lessons.
“Sir” Allen Stanford offered a $20 million prize for one cricket match in 2008. less than four years later he was sentenced to 110 years in prison for a $7 billion fraud.
the match was played in Antigua on November 1, 2008. England faced the Stanford Superstars, a team led by Chris Gayle, with $20 million going to the winners. the Superstars won and England were all out for 99. it was part of a $100 million, five year cricket deal, and that June he had landed a helicopter at Lord’s with fake dollar notes on board.
Antigua and Barbuda had knighted him in 2006, and he went by Sir Allen. Forbes put his wealth at about $2 billion in 2008. according to the Justice Department he owned six private planes and a 112 foot yacht with support vessels.
the money came from depositors. his bank in Antigua sold certificates of deposit at premium rates, and prosecutors said only 10 to 15% of the assets were invested as promised. the rest went to his own businesses through undisclosed loans, while new deposits paid the people who wanted out. by 2008 depositors were owed more than $8 billion.
a jury convicted him on 13 of 14 counts in March 2012. on June 14 the judge sentenced him to 110 years and a $5.9 billion money judgment. Antigua had already taken the knighthood back.
after the collapse a receiver sold the contents of his Miami offices, about 25 truckloads valued at around $2 million. one buyer paid $1,500 for a leather chair, a cherry wood desk and a credenza.
in the video below, CNBC asks Sir Allen how his firm avoided the subprime crisis. he says they never understood the risk, so they did not take it. then he is asked if it is fun being a billionaire. he says yes three times.
who was really carrying the risk: Stanford or his depositors?
Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake for $800 in 1976. today it would be worth more than $400 billion. he is 91, and says he has no regrets.
the $400 billion is on paper, at Apple’s value of about $4 trillion. going from $800 to $400 billion is a gain of 500 million times.
he was one of three founders. in April 1976 he signed the contract that created Apple Computer Company with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and he got his 10% after persuading Wozniak to join. he drafted the incorporation papers, drew the first logo, a picture of Isaac Newton under a tree, and wrote the manual for the Apple I.
about 12 days later he sold out. he was the only founder with assets creditors could seize, and he feared losing his house and car if the company failed. he got $800, then another $1,500 to formally give up every future claim, $2,300 in total.
“I am a much better engineer than businessman,” he has said.
he parted with the contract just as cheaply. Wayne reportedly sold the original in the 1990s for $500. in December 2011 it went to auction at Sotheby’s with an estimate of $150,000 and a starting bid of $70,000, and sold for $1,594,500.
would you sell 10% of the next Apple for $800 if it meant keeping your house?
The “king of crypto” Sam Bankman-Fried was worth an estimated $26 billion before he turned 30. he was convicted of stealing from the customers of his own exchange. the sentence was 25 years, almost one year for every billion.
in March 2021 his company agreed to pay $135 million to put its name on the Miami Heat’s arena for 19 years. the building became FTX Arena.
in the Bahamas, seven condos at the Albany resort cost almost $72 million, and the most expensive purchase was a $30 million penthouse there. Reuters counted around 19 properties worth nearly $121 million bought by FTX and its executives. the deeds reportedly described them as residences for key personnel.
the money was not his to spend like that. a jury convicted him on all seven counts in November 2023, and the judge found that customers lost $8 billion. add $1.7 billion lost by equity investors and $1.3 billion by lenders to his trading firm Alameda Research, and the total comes to $11 billion. he was ordered to forfeit that amount, and the government can use seized assets to repay victims.
before the sentence, both sides named their numbers. prosecutors asked for 40 to 50 years. his lawyers asked for less than 5 and a quarter. in March 2024 the judge landed at 25.
in August 2023 the judge had already revoked his bail after finding he likely tampered with witnesses. he has been held in Brooklyn since.
Forbes called him a $26 billion man. the court ordered him to forfeit $11 billion. the two numbers sit about two years apart.
would you have trusted the “king of crypto” with your savings in 2021?
Jordan Belfort’s fraud cost investors about $200 million. he served 22 months in prison and was ordered to repay $110 million:
in the early 90s he ran Stratton Oakmont, a brokerage with more than 1,000 stockbrokers. the firm was involved in stock issues worth over $1 billion. at the peak he owned a yacht built for Coco Chanel and named it after his wife. it sank off Sardinia in June 1996, and Italian Navy frogmen pulled everyone aboard out of the water.
six months later the NASD expelled the firm. in 1999 he was indicted for securities fraud and money laundering and pleaded guilty. in July 2003 he was sentenced to four years. he came out in April 2006, after 22 months.
the court ordered him to repay $110.4 million to 1,513 clients, with half of his income going toward it until 2009. in 2007 he paid $382,910. in 2008, $148,799. in 2009, $170,000.
then the numbers started to move the other way. he wrote a book for a $500,000 advance. in 2013 a film about him came out with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead. he sold talks for $30,000 to $75,000 each. prosecutors said that of roughly $1.2 million he received from the film deal, he had paid $21,000 to his victims.
by November 2018 the total repaid was $12.8 million, according to court documents. about 12 cents on every dollar the court ordered.
his clients lost about $200 million. the story of how they lost it became a movie.
22 months in prison for $200 million in losses. is that justice?
Krynex retweeted
In 2021, Scarlett Johansson sued Disney over Black Widow's Disney+ release, which reportedly could have cost her $50 million. Disney responded that it had already paid her $20 million.
In the clip below, she tells CBS why she wasn't afraid to sue. "I felt right in my stance."
She had played Black Widow since 2010 and pushed for a solo film for years. Her pay depended largely on the box office.
The film came out on July 9, 2021, in theaters and on Disney+ at the same time. After a strong opening, ticket sales fell 67% the next weekend.
Her suit said the contract promised an exclusive theatrical release, and that Disney gave up box office to grow Disney+ and save on her bonuses.
Disney called the suit meritless and said it showed "callous disregard" for the effects of the pandemic. The contract, Disney said, only required a wide release, and the film played on more than 9,000 US screens.
In September 2021, they settled. Deadline, citing unnamed sources, reported more than $40 million. Both sides said they would keep working together.
In April 2026, she told CBS: "Sometimes you feel a little kind of lonely in the fight." She added: "I can shoulder the burden."
People have since told her the case changed how they negotiate their contracts.
So did Disney grow Disney+ at the cost of her paycheck, or did she sue over a promise her contract never made?
Michael Jackson put the Beatles songs up as collateral for a $200 million loan. eight years later he was dead and owed an estimated $400 million. seven years after that, his estate earned $825 million in a single year:
it began in 1985, when he paid $47.5 million for the rights to around 250 Beatles songs. ten years later Sony paid him $150 million for half of the company that held them. he spent it like money that would never end.
he had a ranch with a zoo and a train station, a pet chimp named Bubbles, and an amusement park that cost $66,200 a month to run, according to his divorce filings as reported by Fox News. an accountant later testified that he spent $20 to $30 million a year more than he earned.
the loan came in 2001, $200 million from Bank of America. in 2006 he sold half of what he had left to Sony for a reported $270 million to avoid a default. in 2008 he missed payments on the $24.5 million loan on Neverland, and the ranch was headed for a public auction.
he died in 2009. estimates of the debt ran from $300 million to almost $500 million.
then Forbes counted the money. in the 12 months to October 2016 his estate earned $825 million. fourth year in a row as the top-earning dead celebrity. that same year the estate sold the last of the catalog to Sony for $750 million.
the assets were never the problem. he owned the most valuable catalog in pop and still could not outrun his own spending.
who should have stopped him, his advisers, his lenders, or nobody?
Michael Jackson died owing an estimated $400 million. he had a zoo, a ferris wheel and a pet chimp, and he paid for them by borrowing against the Beatles songs:
he bought the rights to around 250 of those songs in 1985 for $47.5 million. three years later he paid $14.6 million for a ranch in California and named it Neverland. it got elephants, orangutans, a roller coaster and a train station like the one at Disney. a chimp named Bubbles traveled the world with him.
the bills were not small. in his divorce filings, as reported by Fox News, the zoo and the amusement park alone cost $66,200 a month. an accountant later testified he spent $20 to $30 million a year more than he earned.
so he sold the catalog piece by piece. half went to Sony for $150 million in 1995. in 2001 he took a $200 million loan from Bank of America with the rest as collateral. in 2006, to avoid a default, he sold half of what he had left for a reported $270 million.
in 2008 he missed payments on a $24.5 million loan, and Neverland was headed for a public auction.
he died in 2009. estimates of the debt ran from $300 million to almost $500 million.
here is the part that breaks the story. in the 12 months to October 2016, his estate earned $825 million, according to Forbes. fourth year in a row as the top-earning dead celebrity. that same year it sold the last of the catalog to Sony for $750 million.
the thing he kept borrowing against was worth more than all the debt he left behind. he just did not live to wait for it.
a $14.6 million ranch, a $200 million loan, a $400 million debt. which of those was the real mistake?