Name: Top 10 CEOs Who Lost Everything
Uploaded: 2026-01-31T17:09:18.000Z
Duration: 12 min 51 s
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Bankman Fried is now facing a dozen federal charges in Manhattan court related to the collapse of FTX and Alameda.

And today we're counting down our picks for the business leaders whose empires imploded.

Whether due to incompetence or outright fraud, these CEOs helped destroy the companies they once led and built.

In 2009, he pleaded guilty to 11 criminal counts and received the maximum sentence, 150 years.

In court, he insisted it was all his idea.

Number 10, Trevor Milton, Nikola Corporation.

The company Nikola positioned itself as the next Tesla, promising a revolution in clean transportation.

There's a lot of really good interest and a lot of good customers that are wanting the trucks.

The hardest part we have right now is trying to figure out how to deliver them with the infrastructure going up.

At the same time, investors rushed in and the company's valuation exploded into the tens of billions almost overnight.

But in 2020, allegations emerged that founder Trevor Milton had exaggerated or outright misrepresented Nikola's technology.

All of this started initially with Hindenburg research saying, hey, look, a lot of the comments and the claims that were made by Trevor Milton and by Nikola regarding the ability of their semis to power themselves, videos that were shot, et cetera, that they, they're not accurate.

One Nikola promo video of a fully functional truck was later revealed to have been rolling downhill.

Federal prosecutors charged Milton with fraud and securities violations.

In 2022, he was convicted on multiple counts, bringing his time as the world's new tech CEO darling to an abrupt end.

Though he was later pardoned, Milton lost his company, his reputation and billions in investor value.

Means it's the highest pardon you can get in America.

It essentially says Trevor is innocent and the government was wrong, they were wrong to do it and it should have never happened.

Number nine, Carlos Ghosn, Nissan Renault Alliance.

Carlos Ghosn built a near mythic reputation in the automotive industry.

Carlos Ghosn was a businessman with a cult like following.

Credited with single handedly turning around the fortunes of several major companies.

He was showered with awards, flattering profiles, and even appeared on a stamp.

When Nissan was near collapse, he turned the company around.

The Nissan Renault alliance became a global powerhouse.

Ghosn was an industry darling, celebrated in boardrooms across the world.

Then in 2018, allegations of financial misconduct emerged.

Japanese prosecutors arrested Ghosn, accusing him of underreporting income and misusing company funds.

He claims he's the victim of a conspiracy to oust him.

This is just cruel, and they're punishing us.

These allegations are untrue and I should have never been arrested.

He denied all wrongdoing, but was stripped of his roles and placed under strict bail conditions.

In 2019, Ghosn stunned the world by fleeing Japan.

Hidden inside a large equipment case, he resurfaced in Lebanon.

He remains there to this day, beyond the reach of Japanese extradition and far from the empire he once ruled.

But now I was ready to be able to defend myself.

I stayed practically one year without being able to open my mouth.

For a single glorious moment, John Foley couldn't lose.

We think we've built an incredible company.

The foundation is great, the economics are great, the business model is great, the team's great.

Peloton became the pandemic status symbol, turning home workouts into a luxury brand.

As gyms shut down, demand exploded, the company's valuation soared, and Foley briefly became a tech billionaire.

As the world reopened, sales collapsed and losses mounted.

Failures in Peloton's expanded product line drew intense scrutiny.

When we brought the Tread and the tread plus product to market, it met every existing safety standard in Europe and the US we made sure that they were safe products.

When used properly, they're incredibly safe products.

After a child died in a treadmill accident, the company recalled its tread machines.

In 2022, Foley was pushed out as CEO as Peloton's stock cratered by.

By 2024, he had lost nearly all of his money.

Today, Foley has moved on to a smaller venture in home decor, a quiet comedown from the empire he once built.

I love working with small teams and building stuff, especially consumer brands, which we're doing here at Ernesto.

Adam Newman may have been an office space CEO, but he sold America on a vision.

Promise, community, purpose, Purpose and a new way to work.

If you want to start thinking forward, you really have to think really far away.

At its peak WeWork was valued at nearly $47 billion.

Neumann, meanwhile, lived like a tech messiah, surrounded by his strange cult of personality.

Financial filings revealed massive losses, questionable self dealing, and a CEO exerting near total control.

In 2019, WeWork's shaky fundamentals were exposed.

We ripped off everybody at the end, all the employees.

And on the other end of it, obviously, he's.

He's not only taking all this money, he's spending a lot of money, he's spending it all.

And left the employees who worked with him along the way high and dry.

Newman was forced out, walking away with a lucrative exit package as the company unraveled.

WeWork later filed for bankruptcy, but Neumann didn't disappear.

Backed by venture capital, he returned with Flo, once again selling a big idea, just on a smaller stage.

I am the kind of person that actually learns more from their mistakes than from their successes.

So all the great things we did in the past, we're going to do again.

Number six, Allen Stanford, Stanford Financial Group.

Allen Stanford built an empire on the promise of absolute fiscal security.

Through Stanford Financial Group, he marketed high yield certificates of deposit as safe, exclusive investments.

And they told us that despite it not being regulated by US authorities, that they had higher reserve margins than any US Bank.

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Top 10 CEOs Who Lost Everything

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