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Or "noted 'negative billionaire' [first last name]" with scary quotes. Has the element of past wrongdoing/failure/irresponsiblity and doesn't put a currency or number on it yet keeps the "number of zeros" (the scale of the offense). As a bonus, it's a mocking title and "billionaire" is pseudo-French.
Of course it's in Wikipedia :) Auf das späte 20. Jahrhundert datiert die pseudofranzösische Wortschöpfung „Pleitier“ (angelehnt an „Bankier“, „Rentier“ usw.) als scherz- oder boshafte Bezeichnung für einen insolventen Unternehmer.
Any decent translator should be able to work that into the translation. Bankrupt may exist as a noun but who would use it like that? Billion would work but preferably in conjunction with something at least as expressive as 'Pleitier'
1) Whatever is chosen here has to work well with the individual's name. I think that the latest two agrees posted here have overlooked this complication. 2) billion(s) has to be in there somewhere 3) Bankrupt is indeed both an adjective and a noun. It's even a verb, too.
In this case, if you want to you use "bust": [First name] [Last name], who used to manage several large funds that went bust in the 1990s. If you want to emphasize the bad part, use "fleece(d)...out of," as suggested below. Giving additional info is not a crime if you know what you're doing.
First, the frontrunner is a rather obscure (aka virtually non-existent) compound noun that tells you very little about the actual amount (1 billion, 2 billions?), may not be suitable if the currency is going to be changed (some people seem to have forgotten about "localization") and because of its obscurity will leave room for interpretation, i.e., how these billions relate to "bankrupt."
Second, in light of the additional context, I was actually quite OK with "bankruptcy filer" because many law firms use it, while you won't find a lot of journalists who do. This may be because AP will have you add "protection" after "to file for bankruptcy," so the whole phrase gets too messy. The only thing I took issue with, Michael, was "multiple" because that wasn't true in any case. However, I did raise the same kind of concern regarding herbalchemist's plural use of billion.
Good guess Bjön. And thanks for not posting the link (I have it). I went back to the text and even though there is no year and detail given, the amount in bankrupcy does appear to be in DM and not in Euro.
That doesn't make the translation of the term any easier though ...
Doesn't invalidate my point that it shouldn't be billions or even "multiple billion-dollar..." because, logically, that'd be at least 2 billion dollars (of whatever type).
Since you removed the first and last name, I obviously shouldn't post a link here. But if it's the guy I think it is, which seems very likely considering Canadian involvement, you can find an article on Wirtschaftswoche (WiWo), which will show you that the amount was in marks, not euros.
As herbalchemist said, whatever the amount, it was bad enough. But I think some degree of accuracy wouldn't hurt. It's one of the basic tenets of (reputable) journalism and it should be the de facto standard before court as well.
Herbalchemist was right on the money (pardon the pun) when omitting the currency from the answer line. As you may or may not know, the ratio of EUR to D-Mark was nearly 2:1. The exchange rate in 1999 (year we're talking about here) seems to have been 1 US dollar for 1.83686 German marks.
As you can see, he never owed anyone more than a billion dollars. Ever. It was more like 816 million. You can only be somewhat accurate here if you use herbalchemist's suggestion of a relative clause.