unluckiest family on wall street

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After losing part of their loot in the Enron and Bernard Madoff scandals, guess who these oil tycoons bet on…

Par Francois Miguet

Robert Belfer, here with his wife Renee in 2019, a misguided oil tycoon.
© DIA DIPASUPIL / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Published on 02/02/2023 at 2:30 p.m.

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En North America, there is no royal family like in England. No caste system like in India either. But there are dynasties: those of business. In New York alone, we can cite the Rockefellers, the Astors, the Vanderbilts… So many descendants of fierce entrepreneurs in industry, real estate or oil. These are famous, even beyond the American borders. Others are less so. This is the case of the Belfers, for example, the heirs of a small empire of black gold, of which the patriarch Robert, 87, and his wife Renee are today the figureheads.

If we talk to you about this couple of New York pensioners, it’s not to praise their incredible business sense. Quite the contrary: rarely have we seen a clan of lords from the east coast a…