World Billionaires Who Gave Politics A Chance And Failed
These 10 billionaires who turned into politicians are the very best example that politics and money have very close relation but they could end one’s career if you pursue the wrong path.
With a very successful career in other domains or just filthy rich these individuals gave politics a chance and wanted the best for everybody.
With a wrong step and some bad decisions these billionaires transformed the political life in something they could control, that eventually ended bad.
So let’s see who are the ten billionaires who turned into politicians and failed and what was the cause.
10. Donald Trump
Starting the list of successful billionaires who turned into politicians and failed whit an entry that is coming from the United States, more exactly Donald Trump.
With a net worth of $4,1 billion dollars the host of “The Apprentice” game show, he owns one of the most expensive private jets in the world, Donald Trump is a name that was featured in many campaigns for the presidency, his political activity consisting in large contributions to both parties.
After a while he declared that he wants to candidate as a third-party candidate for the presidency and started to prepare for the 2012 US presidential election.
As the election days were coming and some pols declared him to be ahead of some actual candidates, his president day’s where unsure, the media starting to think this is a way to create more publicity for him and his ventures.
He alone was the reason for an unsuccessful run and he eventually made an announcement that he will not candidate.
Update: As we’re nearing the end of 2015 with him ahead of the pools we might just have to reconsider his position in this top 10!
9.
Mitt Romney
While the most envied seat in the political world is the seat of the president of the United States, many contenders failed to obtain it.
Number 9 is also a candidate to the presidency, but this time we couldn’t offer you a billionaire, not because this fellow is worth that much, just because he tried to play in the big boys league and failed.
This time the only thing that went wrong with Mitt Romney is that his actions between the 2008 and 2012 elections are on the political grid, making his statements in the election period a little bit confusing.
With a religious past that he avoided and some controversies in the campaign, he lost the chance to be president, which in our books is considered a failure, after all, he had 4 years of raising money and giving speeches and blew it on the last lap.
8.
Mikhail Prokhorov
Being president is by far the most important status a person could achieve in his lifetime and some billionaires try to obtain it, after years of successful businesses and millions of dollars in funding.
Europe has such an example, the owner of the NBA basketball team Brooklyn Nets and Russian national businessman Mikhail Prokhoro, who has a reported net worth of $9,5 billion.
For many years he dominated the Russian metal sector and gained stakes in every major company he ever lead, but in 2012 he decided to run for president after he resigned from all his positions in 2011.
But the election was a disaster for him, the independent candidate managing to score only 8 percent of the votes while Vladimir Putin had 63% of the total votes.
7.
H Ross Perot Sr.
To complete the group of people who want to be president, but don’t have the chance, we found another American billionaire who turned into a politician and who were unsuccessful.
The billionaire made his money in electronic data and by creating numerous companies that were sold to big names like General Motos, Dell, but the way he handled his businesses didn’t make him famous in the political world.
With a first attack on the early 90′ administration regarding the war in Vietnam, a lack of support to his campaign managers and a 12 million dollar campaign he never went with are a few of his political mistakes.
For the second run in 1996 he did a little bit better, but not enough to be president and later, after this failed campaign, he made all the political ties go away with a bad behavior against his own party.
6.
Saddam Hussein
Taking the list to another level, we bring a more tragic side of the article where the billionaire politician suffer badly from their political life.
A name fitted for this list, but with a sad and bloody past is Saddam Hussein, the cruel dictator that gave his people only loss and a world of tyranny.
Starting his political career in the army and quickly becoming a military leader helped him gather millions and before he gave the political life, his entire dedication, his net worth went off the roof, by the time he started to take the wrong path his net worth was calculated around $2 billion.
After that we all know that he suffered a bloody and cruel end, making him one of the billionaires who turned into a politician and failed.
5.
Muammar Gaddafi
Creating this list was a little difficult because in this process, we had to remember some of history’s villains who did so much wrong to the population.
Also one of the billionaires who turned into politicians and failed is Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Lybia for almost 4 decades.
Even though he made his billions after becoming a politician, his career ended very bad for him, with a horrible death after years of tyranny and illegalities, giving us the opportunity to name him a billionaire who failed as a politician.
More sad is that everyone following him, was also killed in the process, making his followers pay for his political failure and refuse to abdicate.
4.
Hosni Mubarak
Similar to the last two numbers we have another world leader that failed at politics, making the wrong decisions in life.
When failing, we think about a downfall from the political activity, but in this case, for Hosni Mubarak, the downfall came with an arrest and prosecution for several charges.
With a wealth that exceeds the imaginations and grow somewhere at $7 billion dollars this politician was the longest ruler of Egypt.
The bad politics, he had and the fact that the people were sick of the way he treated them was enough to start a revolution that ended his career and gave him the chance to answer in court for all the illegal things he did.
3.
Anil Ambani
Ending the reign of tyrants, we come to a more peaceful zone, to India, where we found Anil Ambani, a billionaire who has a net worth of 5,9 billion according to Forbes in 2014.
Coming from the wealthiest family in India and managing to create the biggest empire when it comes to the famous Bollywood, Anil Ambani and his brother inherited his fathers businesses and became rich quickly.
Due to his extraordinary work in different areas, with his leading businesses he received a seat in the Rajya Sabha of India, or Council State as we call it.
Unfortunately for him his place here wasn’t guaranteed and the billionaire had to resign due to the fact that the political life is interfering with his businesses.
2.
Syed Abul Hossain
While the United States have failed-to-be presidents and the Arab world showed power and failure, we take you to Bangladesh, where Syed Abul Hossain is the next example in the list of billionaires who turned into politicians and failed.
With a net worth of $1 billion, the businessman had a very successful political career with 4 elections for the Parliament as a minister for the roads and communication department.
His last draw attention upon him and easily created a rumor that he was stealing and embezzling money along with other people.
The situation made him resign and gave us the opportunity to show you how billionaires could easily mistake the government’s money with their own.
1.
Thaksin Shinawatra
Number one on the list of billionaires who turned into politicians and failed is from Thailand and has a pretty impressive resume when it comes to its political life.
One of the richest people in Thailand became a politician in 1994 and after making his own party, Thaksin Shinawatra, managed to become prime minister in 2001.
His first run got him the people’s vote for a second one, but sadly this time the people saw him like a person who is abusing his power.
With a scandal where Thaksin Shinawatra sold some of his shares in a multi-million corporation, without paying taxes, the billionaire lost control over the public’s reaction.
Some quick decision and a not so smart move to make a new election transformed him into an enemy of the state and in a short period he was overthrown and his party outlawed.
Banned from the political life, this billionaire who failed in this domain is now in exile and still has a saying in the Thai politics, but it’s so sad for him that things went upscale so fast and he had to be removed.
What do you think about these politicians? Which one do you think could have done things different?
Let us know in the comments below!
