These 10 billionaires have all gone broke or declared bankruptcy - read the wild stories of how they lost their fortunes

Former-billionaire Vijay Mallya was a prominent liquor tycoon known for his extravagant partying and high-flyer lifestyle. He also owned the now-defunct Indian airline company Kingfisher Airlines. Beginning in 2012, it was revealed that Mallya had racked up numerous debts to banks in trying to keep his airline business afloat.

When he defaulted on payments, the Indian banks he had borrowed money from came looking for him. Using a diplomatic passport he had attained through becoming a member of the Upper House of Parliament in India, he fled from India to the UK. Mallya has yet to return to India, though the government and banks are trying to extradite him to pursue legal action.

According to Business Standard, the businessman is being charged with alleged "bank fraud and money laundering charges amounting to an estimated Rs 90 billion," approximately $1.3 billion. Vijay Mallya's net worth was greatly reduced after a bankruptcy petition was used to recover 1.145 billion pounds in owed funds.

Sean Quinn acquired a great deal of success through his investments in industries such as plastic, glass, and hotels. He also held a 25% stake in Anglo Irish Bank, which had to be bailed out by taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis. The bank was taken over by the government, and thus began a series of legal troubles between the Quinn family and the bank.

Once considered to be the richest man in Ireland, Sean Quinn lost a majority of his $2.8 billion fortune. At one point, the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation, which took over Anglo Irish Bank, claimed Quinn owed the bank more than two billion euros.

Soon after, he was charged with contempt of court for attempting to hide his property assets from the bank in an effort to avoid paying back his debts. Financial Times reports that in November 2011, Quinn claimed his assets to be less than 50,000 pounds and that he had applied for bankruptcy.

Once worth billions, Jocelyn Wildenstein is now worth much less now, according to Money. In May 2018, the socialite and former wife of late billionaire art dealer Alec Wildenstein filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The New York Post reports that, in the filing, she claimed her monthly income was $0, and that she survived on $900 Social Security payments and assistance from her friends and family.

Much of her financial troubles, she claims, are from a faulty divorce settlement. Despite spending most of her alleged $2.5 billion she received in the divorce, Wildenstein told The New York Post that she was promised much more. She was given two paintings in the settlement, one by Diego Velázquez that turned out to be a forgery and another by Cézanne that sold for a fraction of what it was originally appraised at. Now, the former billionaire tells The New York Post she is on the lookout for a "top lawyer" to get her everything she feels she is "supposed to have for [her] lifetime."

Bernie Madoff is widely known as the orchestrator of the largest Ponzi scheme in US history. A financial industry veteran, Madoff flew under the radar for decades before his eventual demise in December 2008. Prior to the scandal, he and his wife had a personal net worth between $823 million and $826 million. Now, he's broke and serving a life sentence.

How did he get away with it for so long? Madoff appeared trustworthy — he had started his Wall Street firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, in 1960, and had served as a former chairman of NASDAQ.

His gigantic Ponzi scheme began to unwind after investors requested a total of $7 billion in returns. At the time, Madoff only had $200 million to $300 million left to give, according to a previous report by Business Insider. Madoff reportedly conned his list of investors out of a whopping $65 billion. Madoff only ended up with about $20 billion from his various investors, however, at the height of the scheme. He was tried by the Department of Justice for 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury, and theft.

Bernie Madoff received a maximum sentence of 150 years in federal prison. Before going to prison, Madoff relinquished most of his assets in a deal with the prosecutors. In exchange for Madoff giving up most of his wealth — an estimated $80 million worth of "mansions, jewelry, cars, and art" — his wife, Ruth Madoff, was given $2.5 million. She has since moved to Old Greenwich, Connecticut.

Elizabeth Holmes was once lauded as a star on the rise in Silicon Valley. Her blood-testing startup company, Theranos, gained attention in the early 2000s as an exciting investment opportunity. The company promised to revolutionize the way patients are tested and treated for various diseases and illnesses. By the end of 2004, the company had raised roughly $6 million from private investors, some of whom had strong personal connections to Holmes.

However, as the buzz grew around Theranos, so did speculation about the new company's practices and regulations. In 2012, after Holmes tried to get Lieutenant Colonel David Shoemaker to sign off on a test run in the military, he raised his concerns with the FDA. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) then performed an inspection of the company. They were told that "the device was still under development."

Tension was mounting at Theranos and, despite one FDA approval, news outlets were investigating its validity. By November 2015, Theranos had lost its two major partnerships with Safeway and Walgreens. By early 2016, CMS had concluded Theranos' testing might pose a safety risk to patients. Multiple lawsuits, layoffs, and a federal claim that Holmes had conducted "massive fraud" later, Theranos closed its doors in September 2018, narrowly avoiding bankruptcy. Holmes and partner Sunny Balwani are currently being charged with wire fraud by the Department of Justice. The trial is set to begin in August 2020. Forbes currently lists Holmes' personal net worth at $0.

Icelandic tycoon Björgólfur Gudmundsson made his fortune in the brewing industry. He also served as owner of UK football team West Ham.

However, in 2009, the man who was once the second-richest man in Iceland filed for bankruptcy. His bankruptcy protection filing covered a massive $759 million in debt.

At the time, it was the largest bankruptcy filing in Icelandic history.

Much of the reason behind Gudmundsson's fall from grace was a result of the plummeting Icelandic economy during the recession. Gudmundsson and his son, Bjorgolfur "Thor" Gudmundsson, were both major shareholders in Icelandic bank Landsbanki, which went under in October 2008.

In December of that same year, Forbes revised Gudmundsson net worth from $1.2 billion to $0 when the billionaire declared bankruptcy. His son, Björgólfur Thor, dropped down the Forbes list, and then eventually dropped off completely. However, he has since gained back a great deal of his wealth, in what Forbes referred to as a "crazy comeback."

Eike Batista once had dreams of becoming the world's richest man. Those aspirations came crashing down, however, when his once-booming oil company OGX went bankrupt in 2013.

The self-made billionaire had been widely known for his lavish lifestyle and became an inspiration for younger Brazilian generations, according to BBC. In 2012, Batista was worth an estimated $30 billion, making him the seventh richest man in the world.

But when Batista's oil company failed to meet demands and Brazil's economy slid into a decline, he was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2013. As authorities began investigating Brazil's top companies and why they had declined so quickly, they charged Eike Batista with money laundering and corruption in late January 2017. In July 2018, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for bribing former Rio de Janeiro governor Sergio Cabral.

Leader of the second-biggest investor fraud case in US history, Allen Stanford is notorious for his shady business dealings and for conning more than 18,000 customers out of their money. Unlike the victims of Bernie Madoff, many of Stanford's victims have yet to receive compensation for the crimes committed against them.

Stanford's crimes began after a Texas fitness club he owned went bankrupt — he then turned to offshore banking and began operating his scheme. According to CNBC, many of Stanford's victims were retirees who were promised "safe investments," making this case of investor fraud even more nefarious.

When the SEC raided Stanford Financial Group's Houston headquarters on February 17, 2009, they charged the magnate and his associates of running a "massive, ongoing fraud," CNBC reported. The investigation alleged that Stanford had been conning investors in order to fund his lavish lifestyle. Holding the title of the second-largest Ponzi scheme in US history, the Stanford scheme culminated in $7 billion in losses for investors.

Stanford was convicted on 13 felony counts in 2012 and is currently serving a 110-year sentence at a high-security prison in Florida, CNBC reported. The consequences of his crimes live on, however, as his victims continue to suffer from the millions of dollars they lost during the years the scheme was operating. Forbes currently lists Stanford's net worth at $0.

President Donald Trump is no stranger to bankruptcy. Though Trump himself has never declared bankruptcy, the businessman-turned-politician has declared bankruptcy on quite a few of his numerous companies.

Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City declared bankruptcy in 1991 after "default[ing] on interest payments to bondholders as his finances went into a tailspin," The Washington Post's Robert O'Harrow wrote. Two other Trump casinos have similarly declared bankruptcy, along with the Plaza Hotel in New York.

PolitiFact also discovered two previously unknown bankruptcies filed by Trump — one for Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts in 2004, which had gone into $1.8 billion in debt, and another for Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009.

President Trump doesn't seem to be bothered by his lengthy history of bankruptcies, however. In a 2016 Republican presidential debate, Trump was asked why he could be trusted to "run the country's business" following his string of bankruptcies.

He responded, saying, "I have used the laws of this country — just like the greatest people that you read about every day in business have used the laws of this country, the chapter laws, to do a great job for my company, for myself, for my employees, for my family, et cetera."