Nelson Bunker Hunt

{{Infobox person

| name = Nelson Bunker Hunt

| image = Nelson B. Hunt.jpg

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|2|22}}

| birth_place = El Dorado, Arkansas, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2014|10|21|1926|02|22}}

| death_place = Dallas, Texas, U.S.

| occupation = {{unbulleted list|Oil, mining|Racehorse owner}}

| nationality = American

| party = Republican

| spouse = {{marriage|Caroline Lewis|1951}}

| children =

| parents = {{unbulleted list|H. L. Hunt|Lyda Bunker}}

| relatives = {{unbulleted list|Lamar Hunt (brother)|Clark Hunt (nephew)}}

| awards = {{plainlist|

{{nowrap|Thoroughbred horse racing:}}

British flat racing Champion Owner (1973, 1974)
Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder (1985, 1987)

}}

Nelson Bunker Hunt (February 22, 1926 – October 21, 2014) was an American oil company executive. He was a billionaire whose fortune collapsed after he and his brothers William Herbert and Lamar tried to corner the world market in silver but were prevented by government intervention.{{cite news| last = Eichenwald| first = Kurt| title = 2 Hunts Fined And Banned From Trades

| newspaper = New York Times| date = December 21, 1989| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/21/business/2-hunts-fined-and-banned-from-trades.html

| access-date = April 13, 2008 }} He was also a thoroughbred horse breeder{{cite book| last = Bowen| first = Edward L.

| title = Legacies of the Turf: A Century of Great Thoroughbred Breeders| publisher = Eclipse Press| year = 2004

| location = Lexington, KY, United States| pages = 249–262| isbn = 1-58150-117-X}} and a major sponsor of the John Birch Society.

Personal

Hunt was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, but lived most of his life in Dallas, Texas.{{cite web| title = Nelson Bunker Hunt

| publisher = The John Birch Society, Inc.| url = http://www.jbs.org/about-jbs/nelson-bunker-hunt| access-date = October 22, 2014}} He was the son of Lyda Bunker and oil tycoon H. L. Hunt, who set up Placid Oil, once one of the biggest independent oil companies,[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/oct/22/oil-baron-nelson-bunker-hunt-dies "Oil Baron Nelson Bunker Hunt Dies"] The Guardian October 22, 2014 He had six siblings: Margaret Hunt Hill (1915–2007), H. L. Hunt III (1917–2005), Caroline Rose Hunt (1923–2018), Lyda Bunker Hunt (born and died in 1925), William Herbert Hunt (1929–2024), and Lamar Hunt (1932–2006). He was married to Caroline Lewis Hunt of Ruston, Louisiana for 63 years until his death, and they had four children together. In October 2014, Hunt died at the age of 88. He had cancer and dementia.{{cite news |url=http://nyti.ms/1yWNeoS |title=Nelson Bunker Hunt, 88, Oil Tycoon With a Texas-Size Presence, Dies |date=October 22, 2014 |access-date=February 26, 2016 |work=New York Times |author=McFadden, Robert D. }}

Business career

Hunt played a significant role in the discovery and development of the oil fields in Libya, the more established oil enterprises' stake of which were nationalized by Muammar Gaddafi in 1973.{{Cite book| last = Greenwood| first = C. J.| title = International Law Reports| publisher = Cambridge University Press| year = 1984| volume = 66| page = 340| isbn = 0-521-46411-0}} This nationalization later resulted in the House of Lords decision in BP Exploration Co (Libya) v Hunt (No 2) [1983] 2 AC 352.

Hunt owned the Dallas-based Titan Resources Corporation, which is still involved in the exploration of oil in North Africa.{{citation |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aRCsmu51x92A&refer=africa |title=Ethiopia, U.S. Billionaire's Titan Resources Signs Oil Accord'|author=McLure, Jason |work=Bloomberg |date=August 21, 2008}} He was chairman of Hunt Exploration and Mining Company (HEMCO).{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}}

Silver manipulation

Beginning in the early 1970s, Hunt and his brothers William Herbert and Lamar began accumulating large amounts of silver on Comex through Brodsky and Associates. By 1979, they had nearly cornered the global market.{{cite magazine| last = Gwynne| first = S. C.| title = Bunker Hunt|magazine= Texas Monthly| volume = 29

}} In the last nine months of 1979, the brothers profited by an estimated US$2–4 billion in silver speculation, with estimated silver holdings of {{convert|100|e6ozt|t}}.{{cite magazine| title = Bunker Hunt's Comstock Lode

|magazine=Time Magazine| volume = 115| issue = 2| publisher = Time Inc.| date = January 14, 1980|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921789,00.html}}

Primarily because of the Hunt brothers' accumulation of the precious metal, prices of silver futures contracts and silver bullion rose from $11 an ounce in September 1979 to $50 an ounce in January 1980. Silver prices ultimately collapsed to below $11 an ounce two months later.{{cite report | url=http://loe.org/images/content/080919/Act1.pdf | title=The Accidental Hunt Brothers: How Institutional Investors Are Driving Up Food And Energy Prices | publisher=LOE | date=July 31, 2008 | access-date=February 26, 2016 | pages=51 | author1=Masters, Michael W. | author2=White, Adam K.}} The largest single-day drop in the price of silver occurred on "Silver Thursday". In February 1985 the Hunt brothers were charged "with manipulating and attempting to manipulate the prices of silver futures contracts and silver bullion during 1979 and 1980" by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

In September 1988 the Hunt brothers filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code largely due to lawsuits incurred as a result of their silver speculation.

In 1989, in a settlement with the CFTC, Nelson Bunker Hunt was fined $10 million and banned from trading in the commodity markets as a result of civil charges of conspiring to manipulate the silver market. This fine was in addition to a multimillion-dollar settlement to pay back taxes, fines and interest to the Internal Revenue Service for the same period. His brother William Herbert Hunt made a similar settlement.

Politics

Nelson Bunker Hunt was active in conservative political causes{{Cite book| last = Tuccille| first = Jerome | title = Kingdom: The Story of the Hunt Family of Texas| publisher = Beard Books| year = 2004| page = 311

| isbn = 1-58798-226-9}} and was a member of the council of the John Birch Society. Among the candidates he supported financially were the fervent segregationists Sen. Strom Thurmond and George Wallace.{{Cite book|last=Carter|first=Dan T.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32739924|title=The politics of rage : George Wallace, the origins of the new conservatism, and the transformation of American politics|date=1995|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0-684-80916-8|location=New York|pages=336|oclc=32739924}} Hunt played a key role in the 1968 presidential campaign in rejecting Wallace's first vice presidential choice, former Kentucky governor Happy Chandler, whom Hunt considered too moderate, and making possible the selection of Curtis LeMay. When LeMay balked at losing his salaried job if he joined the Wallace campaign, Hunt created a secret, $1 million trust fund to compensate LeMay for loss of income.{{Cite book|last=Carter|first=Dan T.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32739924|title=The politics of rage : George Wallace, the origins of the new conservatism, and the transformation of American politics|date=1995|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0-684-80916-8|location=New York|pages=356–362|oclc=32739924}}

Hunt mentored Zahid Bashir, former spokesman and press secretary to the Pakistani Prime Minister, in oil trading. He was one of the main sponsors of the conservative organization Western Goals Foundation, founded in 1979 by General John K. Singlaub, journalist John Rees, and Democratic Congressman from Georgia Larry McDonald. During the mid-1980s, he contributed almost half a million U.S. dollars to The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL),{{Cite journal| last = Walsh| first = Lawrence E.| title = Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters| volume = I: Investigations and Prosecutions| date = August 4, 1993| access-date = July 5, 2008| url = https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_13.htm}}{{Cite book | last1 =Hamilton | first1 =Lee H. | last2 =Inouye

| first2 =Daniel K. | year = 1995 | title = Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran/Contra Affair | publisher =DIANE Publishing

| pages = 93–94 | isbn = 0-7881-2602-4}} a conservative fundraising organization later heavily implicated in the Iran–Contra affair.{{Cite news| last = Berke| first = Richard L.| title =Investigators Say Group Raised $2 Million for Contra Arms Aid

| newspaper = New York Times| date = April 9, 1987| access-date = July 5, 2008| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5DB1739F93AA35757C0A961948260}} Hunt was past chairman of the board of the Bible Society of Texas and the past chairman of, and significant contributor to Campus Crusade for Christ International's "Here's Life" Campaign (1976–1980),{{cite book| last = Diamond| first = Sara| title = Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right| publisher = South End Press| year = 1989| location = Boston, USA| page = [https://archive.org/details/spiritualwarfare0000diam/page/53 53]| isbn = 0-89608-361-6| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/spiritualwarfare0000diam/page/53}}{{Cite book| last =Harrington Watt| first =David

| year =1991| title =A Transforming Faith: Explorations of Twentieth-century American Evangelicalism| publisher =Rutgers University Press| page =19

| isbn =0-8135-1717-6}} as well as providing a $3.5 million loan guarantee for the 1979 Campus Crusade film Jesus.{{cite magazine| last = Van Biema| first = David| title = The Life of Jesus in 830 Languages|magazine=Time Magazine| volume = 161

| issue = 26|page=42| date = June 30, 2003}}

Thoroughbred horse racing

In 1955, Hunt bought his first thoroughbreds and by the 1970s his breeding program had become one of the world's largest and most productive. Winner of the U.S. Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder in 1976, 1985, and 1987, he owned the {{convert|8000|acre|ha|adj=on}} Bluegrass Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and raced thoroughbreds in Europe and North America. Among his horses, Hunt bred or raced Vaguely Noble, Dahlia, Empery, Youth, Exceller, Trillion, Glorious Song, Dahar and Estrapade.

In 1973 and 1974, Hunt was the British flat racing Champion Owner and in 1976 won The Derby with Empery.

The United States National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) awarded Hunt the title of "legendary owner-breeder".{{cite web

| title = Nelson Bunker Hunt| publisher = National Thoroughbred Racing Association| date = May 30, 2006| url = http://www.ntra.com/stats_bios.aspx?id=2142

| access-date = April 13, 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080201053009/http://www.ntra.com/stats_bios.aspx?id=2142 |archive-date = February 1, 2008}} Overall, Hunt bred 158 stakes winners and either bred or owned 25 champions.{{citation |url=http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/26692/john-gaines-in-his-own-words |title=John Gaines in his own words |work=Blood-Horse |date=February 14, 2005}}

Hunt's bankruptcy forced him to liquidate his thoroughbred operations. A 1988 dispersal sale of 580 horses at Keeneland Sales brought in $46,911,800, at that time the highest amount in the history of thoroughbred auctions. In 1999, he returned to thoroughbred ownership, spending a total of $2,075,000 on 51 juveniles and yearlings. At the time he said, "At my age, I don't plan to do any breeding or buy a farm, I just want to have some fun and try to get lucky racing."