Some of the most famous names in entertainment and sport have gone broke — often at the peak of their fame. This page tracks the celebrities profiled on Net Worth VIP who have filed for bankruptcy or seen their fortunes collapse, with the reported figures and what happened next. Every entry links to a fully sourced profile.
| Celebrity | Date | Amount | Net worth (2026) | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rob Dyrdek | 2025-09 | $32.5M | $200M | When the Ridiculousness producers filed for bankruptcy in Nevada, court records reviewed by Bloomberg revealed terms no network would otherwise disclose: $21,000 per episode as executive producer, $61,000 per episode on camera rising toward $101,000, roughly 336 episodes a year, and a bonus of about $2.5 million per 168-episode order - at least $32.5 million a year, rising toward $45 million by 2028-29. source |
| Theo Von | 2024-03-13 | $456K | — | Kast Media's Chapter 11 petition names Theo Von Inc. as its second-largest unsecured creditor, reason given as Podcast Content. The company reported assets of $699,789.33 against liabilities of $6,395,239.39 - total assets amounting to roughly one and a half times his claim alone, which makes recovery doubtful. Whether he received anything is not public; the case reached substantial consummation in July 2025 and discharge that November, but distribution percentages sit behind paid court access. His own public figure of about $4 million covers all affected podcasts, not his share. source |
| Danny Trejo | 2023-02 | $2M | $500K | Filed over roughly $2 million in IRS debt, with a repayment plan running through 2028. source |
| Robert Kiyosaki | 2019-11-15 | — | Legacy Education Alliance International Ltd entered administration. Fifty-two consumers who had paid in advance for courses were left as unsecured creditors for GBP 124,649, recovering 28.8 pence in the pound. The operator was a third-party licensee rather than Kiyosaki, but it was the vehicle through which the brand reached customers. source | |
| Johnny Manziel | 2019-04 | — | League-standard terms were three years and $250,000, non-guaranteed. A $73 million class settlement was announced but was conditional on the bankruptcy estate being funded - and a judge later awarded players $1 against a $144 million claim. His own recovery is undocumented. His advice to teammates at the time proved accurate: the last cheque you got will be the last one you get. source | |
| 50 Cent | 2015-07 | $22M | $100M | Filed citing debts and legal judgments over $22 million, widely seen as a strategic move to manage costly lawsuits. source |
| Joe Francis | 2013-02 | $25M | His Girls Gone Wild company filed for bankruptcy, widely described as a move to shield assets from the Wynn judgment. source | |
| Todd Chrisley | 2012-09-14 | $49.4M | — | The schedules filed in his Chapter 7 case are the only complete picture of his finances ever made public. Assets totalled $4,281,100.00, of which $4,211,000 was real property across five properties and $70,100 was personal property - essentially one vehicle at $68,050, plus clothing at $650, a wedding ring at $1,300 and $100 in cash. The checking account stood at minus $55. Four company interests were listed at zero and a fifth as unknown, and a bank shareholding was already pledged. Buried in the same schedule is a prenuptial agreement from 1996 under which all movable property belongs to his spouse, which is why those interests were entered at zero - the single most important fact for valuing him, and one no published estimate accounts for. Discharge followed on 27 March 2015. source |
| Robert Kiyosaki | 2012-08-20 | $25.9M | — | Rich Global, LLC filed for Chapter 7 liquidation - not Chapter 11 reorganisation - one month after the judgment, listing assets of $1,794,405.26 against liabilities of $25,921,205.11 and $0.00 in real property. Its single meaningful asset was loans receivable from Robert and Kim Kiyosaki personally: $1,544,478.88 in principal plus $238,879.24 in interest. There were only two creditors. The petition was signed by the parent company's chief executive, not by Kiyosaki, and no personal bankruptcy exists for him anywhere in the federal record. source |
| Amanda Bynes | 2008-07 | — | Her line Dear had launched in August 2007 under an Endorsement and License Agreement dated 5 December 2006, signed through her loan-out company Chickiii Productions - a fee-and-royalty deal, not equity, as the bankruptcy docket shows. The purchase agreement capped the buyer's exposure for defaults across all seven celebrity licences at $650,000 combined. source | |
| Mike Tyson | 2003-08 | $27M | $25M | Filed with more than $27 million in debts, including $13.4 million owed to the IRS, despite career purses near $400 million. source |
| Willie Nelson | 1991-01 | $204K | $20M | Sold at the minimum bid to a fan acting on behalf of farmers Nelson had previously helped, who later sold it back to him. Friends did the same at other auctions, bidding low so nobody else would take the lots. source |
| Willie Nelson | 1990-11 | $16.7M | $20M | On 9 November 1990 the IRS froze his accounts and took his country club, recording studio, ranch and around twenty other properties, along with instruments, master tapes and gold records. His guitar Trigger had been moved out beforehand. The claim stood at $16.7 million - $6 million of assessed tax plus $10.2 million of interest and penalties, negotiated down from an opening $32 million. source |
| Dave Ramsey | 1988-09 | $200M | After building a roughly $4 million real estate portfolio on 90-day notes by age 26, his bank was sold and the new owner called $1.2 million in loans, with a second lender demanding $800,000 more. He and his wife filed Chapter 7 on September 23, 1988 - the origin story his entire debt-free business empire is built on. source |
This list is compiled from our individual net worth profiles and grows as we document more cases. Figures are reported estimates aggregated from the sources cited in each row; see our methodology. Related: the biggest single paydays in sport and entertainment. Think we’ve missed someone? Use our Corrections Policy.