Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Bad Celebrity Investments That Make You Go Hmmm

By Cornelius Nunev


While the miracle of celeb may elevate the status attributed to specific individuals, this does not mean that everything celebrities touch turns to gold. Here are a few bad celebrity investments that may make you feel much better during the night.

Information on Mark Twain

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 lot of money back then to throw into an investment. This well-known author, called the first modern celebrity in America by some, wanted this typesetter that was supposed to be much faster than standard Linotype. The business died pretty quickly as the machine was hard to work with and had over 18,000 parts.

Bad Jay-Z investment

Jay-Z's J Hotels in New York City turned out to be a major 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 brought on by the economic crash. Jay-Z's business 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.

Making an investment mistake from Bono

The media and entertainment firm Elevation Partners is actually managed by Bono. The website 24/7 Wall Street said that Bono is "The worst investor in America" when he only got a $25 million return on investments in Palm ($460 million) and Forbes, Inc. ($300 million). He was very successful when he invested in BioWare, Pandemic Studios, Yelp and Facebook.

Larry King

An enormous 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.

Everybody associated with Madoff

Bernard Madoff is currently in jail for 11 federal felonies and serving a 150 year prison sentence. His $65 billion Ponzi scheme stole from over 200 investors, many of which were celebs. Now, all those investors try to figure out what to do to make up for the lost cash.

Burt Reynolds

The most popular movie 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.

Just one more from Debbie Reynolds

Classic Hollywood film star and Las Vegas fixture Debbie Reynolds purchased a Vegas casino in 1991. She christened it the Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino but neglected to anticipate just how much trouble the accommodation would have maintaining business because it was located off the strip. A 1997 bankruptcy and sale of the hotel to the World Wrestling Federation in 1998 for $10 million left Reynolds broke and heartbroken. She would experience such grief again last year when her memorabilia museum also went bankrupt, forcing her to sell off the trappings of her film career.




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