The Bureau of Historic Losses · Estates & Handshakes Division
Fortunes Signed Away
The Archive next door is for the people who never bought. This drawer is for the ones who had it — in hand, on paper, on a handshake — and let it go. Two of them, to the Bureau's quiet outrage, came out ahead anyway.
№ 001 · SIGNED AWAY · 1961 · Richard & Maurice McDonald
The Handshake
They invented the restaurant. They sold it for a one-off cheque and a handshake that vanished.
what they sold all of McDonald's for, 1961
US$2.7M
№ 002 · DILUTED · 2005 · Eduardo Saverin
The Dilution
The co-founder they engineered out of Facebook. He sued his way back to a couple of billion dollars.
his stake the day Facebook went public, 2012
US$2B
№ 003 · REDEEMED · 2008 · Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss
The Redemption
Turned down for Facebook, paid off to go away — and they put the payoff into bitcoin at $120.
what the Facebook settlement was turned into
~1% of all bitcoin
Most fortunes aren't lost in a crash. They're signed away in a good mood.
The Archive — fortunes never boughtor the Skeptics' Ledger — who called it a scam, and what it did since