Who is the poorest person in the world? Meet the world poorest person owing a whooping $6.3 billion.
It is difficult to determine who the poorest person in the world is as poverty is a complex and multifaceted issue that affects individuals and communities differently.
According to the World Bank, the poverty line is defined as living on less than $1.90 a day, and there are still many people living in extreme poverty worldwide.
The richest men in the world are determined by their largest bank account balances. Consequently, it can be inferred that the world’s poorest men can be identified not only by the balance remaining in their bank accounts, but also by the amount of debt they must repay. This describes Jerome Kerviel, the world’s poorest person.
Prior to the event that led to him being labelled the world’s poorest individual, Kerviel led a fairly decent and comfortable existence. Without further ado, I will describe Jerome Kerviel’s life and how he became the poorest person in the world.
Who is the poorest person in the world?
Jerome Kerviel’s label as the world’s largest debtor has made him famous. He was born and raised in Pont-l’Abbé, a commune in northwest France’s Brittany region. His mother, Marie-Josée, is a retired hairdresser; his father, Charles, was a blacksmith. Olivier, his older brother, is a member of his four-member family.
In the year 2000, Kerviel earned a Master’s degree in Finance from Lumière University Lyon, specialising in the organisation and management of financial markets. Prior to this, he had earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Nantes. He was formerly married, but he divorced his wife in 2008.
How did Jerome Kerviel become the world’s poorest person?
In 2005, Kerviel worked for Société Générale’s Delta One division, which is responsible for software investment, exchanges, ETFs, algorithmic trading, and equity derivatives. He worked as a derivatives trader at a junior level and earned approximately $66,000 per year.
Kerviel may have believed that a single high-risk business strategy would propel him to the top of the list of the world’s wealthiest people, but he failed to consider how treacherous the opposite outcome could be. Due to his desire to amass a large net worth, he would suffer terrible and nearly irrecoverable losses in the long run.
It is believed that he began his illegal activities between the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007.
According to reports, he utilised astronomical sums of money to engage in arbitrage trading, which involves making money when multiple stocks trade at different prices when they should all be trading at the same price.
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He made enormous profits in anticipation of market price declines. He would simultaneously engage in losing trades to offset his early victories and earnings. It served him well for some time, but he was running out of time.
On January 19, 2008, Kerviel’s troubles began when his superiors discovered his illegal operations and trading. According to the investigation, he had accumulated approximately $73 billion in stock indexes by January 9, 2008. This resulted in a $7.2 billion loss for Société Générale. According to a report made public by SocGen, Jerome was implicated in a number of trade frauds.
When the scheme was discovered, he had amassed significant debts and liabilities and owed the company $6.3 billion, which he will never repay.
Even though Société Générale bank asserted that Kerviel had operated alone, it is still unknown how much illegal trading occurred without being detected. It is argued that he exceeded the scope of his authority and could not have carried out this method on his own. Through his legal counsel, Kerviel argued that he had taken all of these actions to benefit his employer.
Due to the amount of money he owes, Kerviel has been dubbed the world’s poorest individual. In the annals of financial fraud, the nature of his demise will never be forgotten.
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Arrest
Jerome Kerviel, centred, and his attorney, Olivier Metzner, second right, arrive at the courthouse in Paris.
Because he is accused of gaining unauthorised access to Societe General’s trading systems, Kerviel must at the very least be an expert computer user. Moreover, he was charged with fraud, breach of trust, and exceeding his authority. Kerviel cost Société Générale approximately €4.9 billion ($7 billion) in total.
In 2015, he surrendered to the police and spent three years in prison before being released. Even though he is trying to put his life back together, it seems unlikely that he will ever be able to repay that debt.
Net worth
Currently, Kerviel has a negative net worth of minus $7 million. This debt is owed to Société Générale, the bank for which he formerly worked. This is the highest debt associated with a person in the modern era.
Top five poorest persons in the world
This list contains the names of the world’s largest individual debtors. Individually determining who is the poorest person in the world is nearly impossible.
However, this list highlights the world’s poorest people solely due to their accumulated debt.
Jerome Kerviel
Eike Batista
With a net worth of less than $1 billion, Brazilian-German serial entrepreneur Eike Batista, who was once among the world’s wealthiest individuals, is now among the poorest.
The Batista-led EBX Group was a conglomerate that included OGX (oil and gas), MPX (energy), LLX (logistics), MMX (mining), and OSX (logistics) (offshore services and equipment).
Batista was dedicated to advancing Brazilian infrastructure and participated in large-scale industrial projects, but he overextended himself and his company, which led to his demise and the collapse of his empire.
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With an estimated net worth of $35 billion in 2012, he was the richest Brazilian and seventh richest person in the world. In July of 2013, he was worth $200 million due to the declining stock prices of his company.
After the accumulation of his debts and the liquidation of his company reduced his worth to less than $1 billion, he is currently one of the world’s largest borrowers with no chance of repayment. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for paying the then-governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral, to obtain government contracts, which exacerbated his situation.
Thomas Joseph Petters
Thomas Joseph Petters, a former businessman, defrauded the American public out of roughly $2 billion. Currently, he is serving a fifty-year sentence in prison. Petters was one of the most renowned and admired businesspeople in the country.
But until one of his employees confessed to the police and assisted them in their investigation, not even the United States government had any suspicions that he was operating a fraudulent business and stealing people’s money.
In 2001, he collaborated with the direct mail marketing firm Fingerhut Companies Inc. to launch Redtagbiz.com, an enhanced version of the online marketing firm. At its peak, it was so prosperous that it generated approximately $1 billion per year.
Peters established multiple Ponzi schemes and used the proceeds to fund his retail endeavours. Then, he made fictitious retail purchases to persuade lenders to grant him loans so he could expand his business.
Barry Jay Minkow
Barry Jay Minkow was once a wealthy businessman, but his bank account is currently in the red by $612 million. The company’s name was ZZZZ Best, and its speciality was carpet cleaning and repair.
After he saw the success of his cleaning business, he devised a Ponzi scheme and used ZZZZ Best as a front for his fraudulent activities, out of greed. The company did fail in 1987, costing investors approximately $100 million.
Following his incarceration, he experienced remorse. He became a preacher and collaborated with law enforcement to investigate fraud after changing careers. Upon discovering that he had manipulated the value of stocks on the stock exchange, he was promptly sent back to prison.
World poorest person
Scott W. Rothstein
He currently owes $279 and is likely to spend 50 years in prison (as declared by the judge). He served as chairman, CEO, and controlling shareholder of the now-defunct law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler.
Rothstein led a lavish lifestyle and stole hundreds of millions of dollars from the bank where his company’s account was domiciled using a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. In addition, he was accused of using top-secret information obtained from clients, some of whom were prestigious corporations.
The estimated value of his Ponzi scheme was $1.2 billion, making it one of the largest in recorded history.
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