Nui Onoue's Bankruptcy Broke Records

During Japan's late-1980s bubble, a woman named Nui Onoue went from running an Osaka restaurant to handling billions after bankers and traders began treating her as a market oracle. Financial institutions ultimately lent her more than 2.7 trillion yen, over $20 billion, although her lawyers later claimed she knew nothing about stocks. When her investments soured, she used fake certificates of deposit to fraudulently acquire 342 billion yen, about $2.5 billion, from 12 institutions. Authorities arrested Onoue in 1991, and bankruptcy proceedings placed her debt at 430 billion yen, about $3.1 billion, then the largest personal bankruptcy in Japanese history.

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