16 Of The Most Expensive Mistakes In History

A Regretful Sellout For Ronald Wayne

Alongside Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne was instrumental during the formative years of Apple. Afraid of past experiences and skeptical about the future, Wayne sold his share in Apple for just $800 (£516), 11 days after Apple was formed. According to reports, Wayne would have been worth more than £25 billion today had he kept his stock.

Toshihide Iguchi's Prolonged Miscalculation

Japanese bank executive Toshihide Iguchi converted a US $70,000 debt (£45,000) into a loss of $1.1 billion (£709 million) for the Daiwa Bank after he failed to recover a bet made on U.S. government bonds in 1983. Though Iguchi managed to dodge authorities for over a decade, FBI agents finally caught up with him after 12 years.

Rogue Trader Nick Leeson

Seldom does an individual bring about the downfall of an entire financial institution, but “Rogue Trader” Nick Leeson managed to do so by causing the collapse of the oldest investment bank in the United Kingdom—Barings Bank—in the mid '90s.

His unauthorized speculative trading brought him success at first, but in the end, disaster struck as losses ballooned to over £190 million. He fled to Singapore, where he was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison.

Mathematical Error Ends £80-Million NASA Mars Probe

NASA spent around £80 million on the Mars Climate Orbiter, which was originally designed to study the climate on Mars. However, a small mathematical error proved to be the orbiter’s undoing as NASA lost contact with the probe, and it was eventually destroyed over the planet in 1999.

Sar Alexander II Sells Off Alaska For Just £4.6 Million

During the late 19th century, Russian emperor Tsar Alexander II was unable to look at Alaska as something other than a land with a lot of ice cover. Fearful of a forceful takeover of Alaska by the United States, the Tsar decided to sell the vast territory to the United States for just £4.6 million in March 1867.

Since the values of ruble and dollar at the time were almost similar, Russia gained little in cash and lost natural resources worth billions of dollars.

A £116 Million Jackpot That Went Unclaimed

A British couple lost a fortune of around £116 million in 2010. A woman’s ticket for the Euro Millions lottery won the jackpot, but her husband threw it in the trash, which meant that they could not claim the prize money.

Equipment Fault Causes A £230 Billion Nuclear Disaster

A tragedy that still send shivers down the spines of many around the world, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster was caused by an equipment failure in four reactors that went out of control during a test.

The entire 1986 disaster cost around a massive £230 billion in cleanup and in the value of lost farmland. The loss at today's inflated rate stands at around a staggering £464 billion!

Xerox Fails To Protect Commercial Secret From Apple

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