10 Celebrities With Massive Debt

Mike Tyson

Boxers aren't really known for their financial acuity, but Mike Tyson took things to a whole new level. The outspoken pugilist spent money like it was going out of style when he was on top of the game, purchasing an extravagant Vegas mansion and keeping Siberian tigers as pets. Unfortunately, things can turn in the blink of an eye in the boxing world, and when Tyson lost his title his finances crashed hard, driving him into bankruptcy in 2003. At his worst, he owed sums like $13.4 million to the IRS, $4 million to the British tax authorities, and $600,000 to seven different law firms.

Chris Tucker

"Rush Hour" star Chris Tucker doesn't seem like the kind of person who would blow through a spectacular amount of money, but there's something about the head rush that comes with worldwide fame that makes people go crazy. Tucker found brief success starring alongside Jackie Chan in the action-comedies, but his career stalled after that. He didn't bother to slow down his lifestyle, though, buying a home in Florida for $6 million that was soon foreclosed on and racking up an IRS debt of over $11 million.

Joe Francis

The "Girls Gone Wild" creator sure made a lot of money in the late 90s exploiting the drunken lack of self-esteem prevalent in college girls. Unfortunately, he was good at losing it as well. In addition to the multiple lawsuits filed against him by girls pissed off that their going wild was on camera, he also decided that paying his taxes was not important. On his 2002 and 2003 tax returns, Francis claimed over $20 million in fraudulent deductions, which were immediately detected and cost him a quarter of a million dollars. While in prison, he also got busted for trying to bribe guards to do him special favors.

Toni Braxton

The R&B singer obviously didn't learn her lesson when she filed for bankruptcy in 1998. A decade later, things got even worse for her as she racked up a staggering $50 million in debt. It wasn't entirely her fault, though, despite her lavish lifestyle. Health problems forced her to cancel a string of shows in Las Vegas, which dented her income, but the numbers still don't totally add up. Braxton's real assets amounted to about $10 million, and she was leveraged nearly five times that much. Also, she refused to tell debt collectors that she had lupus, which made things even worse for her.

Kim Basinger

Celebrities can be talked into making all kinds of dumb business decisions, but Kim Basinger may take the cake. In 1989, Basinger, in partnership with the American Pension Fund, bought the entire town of Braselton, Georgia for $20 million. The idea was to turn the small city into a tourist destination with a functional movie studio, but needless to say that didn't happen. Basinger's fortunes fell from there, and after being sued by Main Line Pictures for pulling out of "Boxing Helena" (which cost her $8.1 million) she filed for bankruptcy in 1993.

Wesley Snipes

The principal creditor in many of these cases of celebrity debt is none other than the United States government. We all know that rich people pay a smaller percentage of taxes than the rest of us due to a whole cookbook's worth of financial machinations, but some celebs don't want to pay anything at all. Probably the poster child for this method is "Blade" actor Wesley Snipes, who was charged in 2006 with filing multiple years of fake tax returns. When he did pay, he included valueless "bills of exchange" instead of checks. All this got him was three years in jail.

Annie Leibovitz

Celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz claims ignorance on exactly how she ended up $24 million in debt, but a quick look at her crazy spending sheds some light on the subject. First and foremost, she probably shouldn't have hired Wesley Snipes's financial advisor. Leibovitz's lavish lifestyle, incorporating a mansion and a gigantic staff of hired hands (the only person she trusted to fix her air conditioning lived in Vermont and she flew him down when something needed to be fixed) quickly outpaced her earnings, and she took the drastic step of selling copyrights to a lender in order to secure a loan. Obviously, that didn't work out, and the lender sued her for nonpayment.

Nicolas Cage

Probably the poster child for Hollywood debt, Nicolas Cage spent money like an absolute lunatic during the 1990s and early 2000s. Cage bought all sorts of crap with his movie payouts, including a private island in the Bahamas, a Gulfstream 1159A turbojet, multiple mansions and two castles. The combined upkeep on all of this quickly outstripped his income (a rumored $20 million per film before agent's percentage), and when you throw in $14 million of unpaid taxes you have a real problem. In order to get out of his huge hole, Cage sold off most of his possessions, including his prized comic book collection and Tyrannosaurus skull.