In 1974, Nelson Bunker Hunt (Nelson Bunker Hunt) received an award from the Queen Elizabeth after winning one of his thoroughbred racehorses.
On Tuesday (21.10) in Dallas died Nelson Bunker Hunt, a simple Texan oil tycoon who owned thousands of horses, drove the old "Cadillac" and once tried to monopolize the world silver market ... but only lost most of his fortune when the price dropped. He was 88.
As the Dallas Morning News, he died in a nursing home was preceded by a long period of treatment of cancer and dementia.
"Billions of dollars - this is not what it used to - he said in 1980, when silver rates gained them together with his brothers Herbert and Lamar, collapsed from $ 50.35 to $ 10.80 per ounce. Barely two months, as the value of their funds and purchase contracts, which together accounted for a third to half the world's supply of gold fell from $ 7 billion in January to cost $ 1.7 billion loss in March.

Hunts were not able to cater for the huge demand for margin deposits, placing the financial markets and brokerage houses under threat of collapse and prompted federal regulators to intervene, and the country's banks. Credit line was opened at $ 1 billion, and this system has saved the financial assistance from the panic, and Hunt from collapse.
Nelson Bunker Hunt (right) and his brother William Herbert Hunt (William Herbert Hunt) (center) in 1980, before the House of Representatives, inquiring into their attempt to monopolize the market for silver, and their lawyer, Ivan Irwin ml. (Ivan Irwin Jr.)

But for Bunker Hunt (he used his middle name) and his brother - the son of one of the richest clans of the world - the rise and fall ended years of litigation, civil charges, penalties, claims for damages and bankruptcy procedures. On the left is their vast possessions, real estate, oil, gas, cattle, coal, stables of thoroughbred horses and other assets. Nevertheless, they managed to save millions and not subject to criminal prosecution.
Suffered losses, and many others - speculators who bought the metal and futures contracts and not dump them on time, and ordinary people who were selling silverware, jewelry and candle holders to cash in on the rise of silver prices. Introduced new rules limiting trading, abundance of silver on the open market has strengthened the panic that caused the collapse of prices.
Bunker Hunt, a genial eccentric weight 125 pounds, looks a bit like an actor Burl Ives (Burl Ives). In the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the richest people in the world and worth an estimated $ 16 billion. He had five brothers and sisters, heirs of oil billionaire GL Hunt, who had 15 children by three women who died in 1974. Together with his brothers and sisters ran Bunker stunning family fortune, the magnitude of which is not publicly disclosed.

In the heyday of Bunker Hunt owned 2 million hectares of grazing land in Australia, 1,000 thoroughbred horses on different farms, from Ireland to New Zealand, 3.2 million hectares of oil fields in Libya, shelf wells in the Philippines and Mexico, the empire of skyscrapers, cattle ranches, shares in the mining industry and other assets. His abode was a provincial French-style mansion in the suburbs of Dallas and ranch area of ​​800 hectares, 50 km from the city.
He is often compared with Jett Rink (Jett Rink), antihero "Giant" by Edna Ferber (Edna Ferber) or insidious J. R. Ewing (JR Ewing) from a long television series CBS «Dallas." He was a non-smoker teetotaler, but charming and careless way he created his customs: cheap costumes, tacky Cadillac flights in economy class eatery with burgers and dusty farmyard with a noisy crowd of employees.
He was a Christian evangelist, close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell (Jerry Falwell) and Pato Robertson (Pat Robertson), and supported by right-wing politicians and currents, including the John Birch Society. He hated the federal government, warned about the international Communist conspiracy, spewing anti-Semitism, made a deal with the Saudi royal family and subsidized expedition to rescue the Titanic and the search for Noah's ark.

Defeated after the fiasco of the silver and other losses in the oil and real estate, Mr. Hunt and his brothers took out loans to pay off debts, then sold a piece of property to pay off loans, and declared bankruptcy of a number of family-owned companies, including Placid Oil Company diamond in the crown of the financial empire Hunt. In the end it was sold, together with houses, land, stables, antiques and other treasures.
As a result of the trial in Manhattan federal court in 1988 ruled that Hunt had conspired with others to fraudulently project that aims to monopolize the silver market, and ordered compensation for damages in the amount of $ 130 million Peruvian trading concern. Bunker and Herbert were convicted, while the role of Lamar, owner of the football team Kansas City Chiefs, was recognized not as significant.
Lenders were advancing, Khanty rapidly losing money and defaulted on $ 1.5 billion in loans. They agreed to pay to the Commission for immediate trade $ 90 million tax debt in 15 years and $ 10 million in fines each, closed for trading them. In 1989 Bunker came out of bankruptcy with assets of $ 5 to $ 10 million and debts, stretching to the horizon.

But, skillfully handling the courts and trusts using counterclaims and extrajudicial agreement to buy time and ease the damage Hunts for many years continued to conduct business as usual: Bunker oil surveys conducted abroad, participated in the race and kept the small stables of thoroughbred horses; Herbert held a real estate transaction; Lamar doing his sports projects.
Bunker, as well as his brothers and sisters, still had millions in a trust fund established by his father. In 2001, Forbes reported that although the Bunker no longer appears in the list of the richest Americans, he recently bought a 80 racehorses for $ 2.5 million, and that the mare Hattiesburg, bought for $ 20,000, won $ 357,000.
"In fact, I know nothing, - he said. - I'm just trying to win some races. "
Nelson Bunker Hunt was born on 02/22/1926 in El Dorado, Arkansas, and was one of seven children of Haroldson Lafayette Hunt ml. (Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr.) and Lida BankerHant (Lyda Bunker Hunt). One of the girls died in infancy. By 1935 GL Hunt has grown rich on oil and has established trust funds for Bunker and his two sisters, Margaret and Caroline, and three brothers, William Herbert, and Lamar Haroldson III, known as Hussey - he was incapacitated due to mental disease.

Only many years later, they found that their father was still two families: four children of Ruth Ray (Ruth Ray) and Fran Tai (Frania Tye). After all internecine intrigues all trust funds received, and some received an inheritance according to the will of the patriarch.
When Bunker was 12, the family moved to Dallas. He studied at the University of Texas, joined the Navy during World War II, and after writing off the coast studied at Southern Methodist University. Some time with his father and brothers worked in the oil business, then started his own business with cattle, horses and oil. He managed to make $ 5 billion in Libya before Colonel Muammar Gaddafi nationalized oil fields.
In 1951 he married Caroline Lewis (Caroline Lewis), who survived him. It is also survived by his brother William Herbert Hunt and sister Caroline Rose Hunt. (Lamar Hunt died in 2006, Hussey Hunt in 2005, and Margaret Hunt Hill in 2007.) He left a son, Houston, daughter Ellen Hunt Flowers (Ellen Hunt Flowers), Mary Hunt Huddleston (Mary Hunt Huddleston) and Betsy Hunt Cairns (Betsy Hunt Curnes), 14 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
In the 1970s, oil prices were rising, with them growing family wealth - but also inflation. Hunts insisted that their pursuit of silver was just a measure of protection against inflation. The main part was bought stocks on margin or at the expense of borrowed funds.
In mid-January 1980 they owned (or controlled) by the huge amount of silver that received a $ 100 million paper profit on every $ 1 price increase.
Then the bubble burst.
When the market collapsed, and the family had to invest billions in collateral, the older sister, Margaret, whose voice was decisive on the family council, demanded from Bunker's response - that he intended to do?
"I just wanted to earn some money," - he replied.