Billions to Bust and Back

Thor Bjorgolfsson became Iceland's first billionaire. On his fortieth birthday, and worth $3.5 billion, he was sitting on top of the world. His biggest triumph was the takeover of Iceland's second-largest bank, Landsbanki, but when financial meltdown hit in 2008, Landsbanki crashed and burned, taking Bjorgolfsson with it. Within twelve months he had lost 3.3 billion euros and was treated as a scapegoat for supposedly bringing about the disaster. Faced with appalling debts, Bjorgolfsson has since made good on his promises to repay his creditors, and at the age of forty-seven is now a billionaire once again.