Awful Celebrity Investments And The Cash Lost

By Cornelius Nunev


While the miracle of celebrity may increase the status related to specific people, this does not mean that everything celebs touch turns to gold. Here are a few bad celebrity investments that may cause you to feel much better at night.

Mark Twain investment

In the late 19th century, Mark Twain invested $150,000 to $300,000 on a machine called the Paige Compositor for 11 years. That was a ton of cash back then to throw into an investment. This renowned author, known as the first modern celebrity in America by some, wanted this typesetter that was intended to be much faster than standard Linotype. The business perished pretty quickly since the machine was hard to work with and had over 18,000 parts.

Investment from Jay-Z

Jay-Z's J Hotels in New York City turned out to be a serious bust. The hip-hop mogul bought land in the Chelsea neighborhood in 2007 to build a 150,000-square-foot luxury hotel. By 2008, however, construction was shut down because of lack of funds caused by the economic crash. Jay-Z's company defaulted on the $52 million loan, and the hotel partners gave the property back to the lenders. Legal battles and out-of-court settlements came to a painful yet unspecified financial end in December 2010.

The Bono investment

Bono was very profitable in his investments with Facebook, BioWare, Pandemic Studios and Yelp. The only issue was that his confidence grew into investments in Forbes, Inc. ($300 million) and Palm ($460 million). These investments only brought a $25 million return for Bono, and he was known as "the worst investor in America" by 24/7 Wall Street. He is the managing director for entertainment equity firm Elevation Partners presently.

Investment decision from Larry King

A huge life insurance coverage scam was put on King when he invested into two policies worth $15 million. He ended up only getting $1.4 million out of the sale.

Losing to Madoff

More than 200 investors, such as celebs were taken in by Bernard Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme. Madoff is now in jail serving 150 years for 11 federal felonies, while celebrities and lower-profile investors are still trying to find ways to make up for their sizable financial loss.

Movie star investment

The most popular film star of the 1970s, Burt Reynolds ended up handling the urge many celebrities face: opening a restaurant chain. The chain was PoFolks, and outlets existed in California, Texas and Florida. By the late 1980s, however, the cupboard was bare and Reynolds was out $15 million. His eventual divorce from Loni Anderson and diminished star power led to a 1996 bankruptcy. Even though he was more than $10 million in debt, bankruptcy court allowed him to keep his $2.5 million mansion and all of his personal property that Anderson hadn't already claimed.

Reynolds investment

Debbie Reynolds decided she wanted to open a Las Vegas casino and hotel in 1991, although she did not realize that being off the strip would make it extremely hard to stay in business. It was known as the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino, but she ended up selling it for $10 million to the World Wrestling Federation in 1998 after a 1997 bankruptcy. She wound up broke, and was even more serious off when having to sell all her movie career memorabilia in 2010 when her museum went bankrupt.




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