Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Bad luck befell Brazilian businessman, Eike Batista. Previously, in the glory days, he had a gold mine and assets reaching IDR 465 trillion. However, in 2013 he was declared bankrupt.

Even worse, Brazilian authorities said that all the assets he owned came from unfair transactions. As a result, he had to spend the rest of his life in prison. Of course in poor conditions.

What's the story?

In Brazil, Eike was initially considered a businessman idol among the public. He, who was studying in Germany, initially worked as a salesman selling goods from door to door. However, along the way he took a brave and reckless step, namely quitting college and working for a gold business in Brazil.

At that time, in the 1980s, Brazil was experiencing a gold boom and everyone was tempted into this business, including Eike. In the report BBCEike started a gold business by borrowing money from diamond entrepreneurs in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

The loan proceeds were then used to buy gold mining. It was this gold mine that would later make Eike rich in wealth. Throughout the 1980s, Eike increasingly expanded his business by establishing global level cooperation.

Quote Britannica, profits from this gold business were then diverted to building energy, logistics, shipbuilding and property companies. All of these companies will later be under the parent company EBX Group.

This success then led Eike to become a billionaire and briefly topped the Forbes list of the richest people in the world. Quote CNBC Internationalhe had assets of up to US$ 30 billion or Rp. 465 trillion today.

Unfortunately, the long journey of 30 years from starting a business to becoming the richest person in the world just disappeared overnight. This can happen, as the site writes World Financebecause Eike made a very trivial business miscalculation.

The story begins in 2013, at that time he was involved in various super complicated and expensive infrastructure and mining projects. The problem was, this project took place when his company was experiencing financial difficulties and Eike also forgot to see the future prospects of the project.

While working on the project, he realized that mining could not be profitable. Production alone is very low. He had spent a lot of money, but the results were far from what he expected. Practically he also lost a large amount.

From here, business decline occurred. He sold his yacht and property to cover his losses. Since then, his wealth began to disappear day by day. It didn't stop there, this business mistake also succeeded in exposing Eike's veil that he had been covering up.

In 2017, in Brazil there was “Operation Car Wash” which attempted to uncover cases of political party corruption. So, in this demolition, Eike's name was mentioned and proven to be involved. So, the business empire and wealth he built apparently came from corruption and nepotism.

Eike is known to often take advantage of his political connections to start businesses and take advantage of project contracts from the government. Of course, in this relationship there is a flow of illicit money. It was on this basis that the court sentenced him to 30 years in prison in 2018.

However, this punishment did not make Eike give up. A year later, he became a suspect again in a market manipulation case that profited him up to US$ 203 million or Rp. 3.14 trillion. As a result, a Brazilian court sentenced him to 8 years in prison and a fine of US$ 20 million.

Now, Eike's name has emerged from the hustle and bustle of Brazilian capitalism. Thanks to his mistake, he will have to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(mfa/sef)