Famous People have filed Bankruptcy too
For this edition of Bankruptcy INK, a lighter approach to the very serious subject of bankruptcy and financial problems shall be looked at: Famous people who have declared bankruptcy.
ABC’s 20/20 did a piece at the beginning of the year on a new trend people do online called “cyberbegging.” By no means do we endorse this practice of Internet begging for desired funds for whatever reasons, but seeing Saved by the Bell’s Dustin “Screech” Diamond explain the events in his life that led him down this path was dramatic.
His father was caught up in the easy money the young Diamond’s child TV star lifestyle could provide. Diamond told 20/20 most of the money that was made he never saw by the time he would actually need it as a young man. He moved from his Hollywood home to Wisconsin after filing bankruptcy, and along the way got caught up in a “shady business deal” that cost him close to $250,000 and his home.
"I said, 'You know what? I'm going to sell this shirt, and I'm going to tell the public where this money is going if not just to save the house, I'll use the money to fight this guy off in court because this is wrong.' … We sold about 22,000 shirts," he said to 20/20 of his cyberbegging experience.
But Screech is just one of many who once enjoyed the lifestyle of the rich and famous and later needed to file bankruptcy.
Today he’s a billionaire, but at one time Donald Trump’s debts were too great – even for him. Musicians from Michael Jackson to Mozart to MC Hammer all declared bankruptcy.
Actor Burt Reynolds and boxer Mike Tyson are some of the others who also went down the bankruptcy road, too.
You may feel all alone during these times of unemployment, home foreclosure, repossession and harassing creditors, but others – who had it much better financially than you – have also had financial woes and looked for a second start.