A Tale of Riches to Rags: The Bankruptcy of Former Irish Billionaire Sean Quinn

From BusinessWeek/Bloomberg:

Sean Quinn, once Ireland’s richest man, was declared bankrupt after losing more than one billion euros ($1.3 billion) investing in Anglo Irish Bank Corp.

Judge Elizabeth Dunne ruled on the bankruptcy in Ireland’s High Court in Dublin today. Quinn didn’t contest the bankruptcy petition brought by Irish Bank Resolution Corp., formerly Anglo Irish Bank.

The IBRC estimates that Quinn, whose fortune was valued at around $6 billion by Forbes magazine in 2008, owes the bank almost 2.9 billion euros. The lender in April appointed a share receiver to take over the Quinn family’s equity interest in Quinn Group, a conglomerate whose businesses included building materials, insurance and real estate.

We would see many bankruptcies by rich bankers when governments stop supporting them. But this isn’t likely to happen anytime soon as the welfare state will continue with its laborious efforts to preserve the current system.

And this can be seen with many "too big to fail" banks in the EU, continuing to receive massive support from their governments via the ECB.