The Incredible Shrinking Billionaire

The chips are down for EchoStar's poker-playing Charlie Ergen

“Rule No 1: never lose money. Rule No 2: never forget rule No 1.” - Warren Buffett

Charlie Ergen is down to his last $2.8 billion.

That’s still Oprah money, but in 2015, the brash EchoStar co-founder’s net worth topped $20 billion, or what you might call Rupert Murdoch money. That’s according to Forbes, which keeps a running scorecard of the world’s richest people.

Ergen didn’t have quite enough loot to make Forbes’ latest 400 Richest People in America list, which came out this week.

Since 2015, most billionaires have become even bigger billionaires, Forbes data shows. Murdoch’s wealth, for instance, has gone from $13.9 billion to nearly $20 billion in that time. Elon Musk’s wealth has soared from $12 billion to $266 billion – even after losing billions on his chaotic takeover of Twitter.

In the rarified world of billionaires, the 71-year-old Ergen is a loser. Even Pete Cancro, who makes sandwiches at Jersey Mike’s, has surpassed Ergen with a net worth of $5.6 billion. (Sorry, Charlie, but on the Forbes list, Pete is on a roll … and you’re toast.)

This is a shameful reverse of fortune for a gritty entrepreneur who used to launch satellites, build pay-TV services like Dish and Sling, and amass pricey wireless spectrum licenses in a harried attempt to build the nation’s next big cell phone carrier.

How’d he do it? The same way every big loser does it: Outsized ambitions, excessive risks, too much debt, not enough revenue – and on top of it all, he has not been such a nice guy.

Echostar chairman Charlie Ergen. (Photo credit: Echostar)

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