He went from a net worth of $32 billion to more than a billion in debt. Today, he’s known as “the negative billionaire” because he owes creditors $1.2 billion. In fact, four of his companies went bankrupt as falling gold and iron ore prices destroyed his “long only” commodities empire. So when commodities started to crash in 2012, Batista’s wealth evaporated. He put all his money in a leveraged bet that commodities would go up.Īll of his companies were commodity-based businesses, including an oil driller, a mining company, an electricity producer and a port operator. What was his brilliant strategy to achieve this? In 2012, when he was worth $32 billion, he made international news headlines saying: “I will be the world’s richest man.”

Guess what his net worth is today? You won’t believe it… In 2012, he was the seventh-richest person on the planet, worth an estimated $32 billion, according to the Bloomberg billionaire index. Well, one option is to pile $32 billion in cash into a giant mountain, and burn it.Īnother is to invest it all in commodity-related investments with a “buy-and-hold” mentality.īrazilian businessman Eike Batista went for option #2.

What’s the quickest way to lose $32 billion?