Nelson Bunker Hunt (February 22, 1926 - October 21, 2014) is an executive of an American oil company. He is a former billionaire whose fortunes collapsed after he and his brothers William Herbert and Lamar Hunt tried to corner the world market with silver but were prevented by government intervention. He is also an excellent horse breeder.
Video Nelson Bunker Hunt
Personal
Hunt was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, but lives most of his life in Dallas, Texas. He is the son of Lyda Bunker and oil tycoon H. L. Hunt, who founded Placid Oil, once one of the largest independent oil companies, and brother Lamar Hunt, founder of American Football League and Kansas City Chiefs. In October 2014, Hunt died at the age of 88 years. He had cancer and dementia.
Maps Nelson Bunker Hunt
Business career
Bunker Hunt played a very significant role in the discovery and development of oil fields in Libya, nationalized by Muammar Gaddafi in 1973. This nationalization later resulted in the decision of House of Lords in BP Exploration Co. (Libya) v Hunt (No. 2)) [1983] 2 AC 352.
Hunt owns the Dallas-based Titan Resources Corporation, which is still involved in oil exploration in North Africa. He is chairman of Hunt Exploration and Mining Company (HEMCO).
Silver manipulation
Beginning in the early 1970s, Hunt and his brothers, William Herbert and Lamar began collecting large amounts of silver. In 1979, they almost cornered the global market. In the last nine months of 1979, brothers earned $ 2 billion to $ 4 billion in silver speculation, with an estimate of silver holdings of 100 million troy ounces (3.1 million kg).
Mainly because of Hunt's brothers' accumulation of precious metals, the price of silver futures contracts and silver bullion rose from $ 11 an ounce in September 1979 to $ 50 an ounce in January 1980. Silver prices eventually collapsed below $ 11 per ounce two months then. The biggest one-day decline in silver prices occurred on "Silver Thursday." In February 1985, Brothers Hunt was accused of "manipulating and trying to manipulate the price of silver and gold futures contracts during 1979 and 1980" by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
In September 1988, Hunt brothers filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code primarily due to lawsuits arising as a result of their silver speculation.
In 1989, in settlement with the CFTC, Nelson Bunker Hunt was fined US $ 10 million and banned from trading in commodity markets as a result of civil charges conspiring to manipulate the silver market. This fine is in addition to the settlement of millions of dollars to pay back taxes, penalties and interest to the Internal Revenue Service for the same period. His brother made a similar agreement.
Politics
Nelson Bunker Hunt is very active in conservative politics and a member of the John Birch Society Board.
Hunt also leads Zahid Bashir, a former spokesperson and press secretary to the Pakistani prime minister, in oil trading. He is one of the main sponsors of the conservative organization, the Western Goals Foundation, founded in 1979 by General John K. Singlaub, journalist John Rees, and Democratic congressman from Georgia Larry McDonald. During the mid-1980s, he donated nearly half a million dollars to the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL), a conservative fund-raising organization that was deeply involved in Iran-Contra affairs. Hunt has passed the Chairman of the Board of the Bible Society of Texas and former Chairman, and an important contributor to Campus Crusade for Christ International's "This Life Life Campaign (1976-1980), as well as providing a $ 3.5 million loan guarantee for the 1979 Campus Crusade film < i> Jesus .
Horse racing
In 1955 Hunt bought his first horses and in the 1970s his breeding program has become one of the largest and most productive in the world. The winner of the US Eclipse Award for Breeders Outstanding in 1976, 1985, and 1987, he owns 8,000 acre (3,200Ã, ha) Bluegrass Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and races in Europe and North America. Among his horses, Hunt raises or drives Vaguely Noble, Dahlia, Empery, Youth, Exceller, Trillion, Great Song, Dahar and Estrapade.
In 1973 and 1974, Hunt was the owner of the British flat racing champion and in 1976 won The Derby.
The National Horse Racing Association of the United States (NTRA) gives the title of hunting "legendary owner-breeder". Overall, Hunt raised 158 bets and bred or had 25 champions.
Hunt's bankruptcy forced him to liquidate his race operation. A 1988 dispersion sale of 580 horses in Keeneland Sales earned $ 46,911,800, at the time the highest number in a truly pure auction history. In 1999, he returned to pure possession, spending a total of $ 2,075,000 for 51 teens and children. At the time he said, "At my age, I do not plan to do a nursery or buy a farm, I just want to have fun and try to get lucky racing."
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia