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The high roller's rollercoaster ride: big win, big loss and big win again: the author of Billions to Bust - and Back on what it's like to receive, relinquish and regain a king's ransom.

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Vincent
PositionMUST READ - Column

On my 40th birthday in 2007, I was sitting on top of the world - a world in which only 250 people were richer than me. I lent my jet airliner to presidents, mingled with Hollywood stars and was feted in Iceland as the nation's first billionaire.

To celebrate, my wife Kristin and I hired a Boeing 767 and took off with 120 of our closest friends. They had no clue as to where they were going until we landed in Jamaica. There we were entertained with beach concerts by Jamiroquai and Ziggy Marley and we dined in a white castle. At that moment I wouldn't have believed that I'd lose 99 per cent of my $4bn fortune within 18 months and be pursued to the brink of bankruptcy by seven banks. I'd be treated like a pariah in my home country, saddled with $1bn of debt and hated as a man who had supposedly brought down a nation's economy almost single-handedly.

How did I get from Caribbean hero to Icelandic zero? Billions to Bust - and Back reveals all. It describes my upbringing in one of Iceland's most famous business families, then traces 10 years of hard graft in the craziness of post-Communist Russia, where I helped to start three drinks firms and sold the third to Heineken for [euro]400m...

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