Ivar Kreuger was hailed as Europe's savior throughout the 1920s and He was regarded as the country's best con artist a month after his passing in 1932. Crazy transformation! Isn’t it?
John Kenneth Galbraith referred to Ivar Kreuger as the Leonardo of the trade of boiler-room operators, brokers of stocks in made-up Canadian mines, and mutual-fund managers with an unrestrained sense of brilliance and imagination. But he later became a well-known fraudster.
Wanna know about him? Then stay tuned till the end.
In Kalmar, Sweden, Ivar Kreuger was born in the year 1880. His father and uncle already owned two small match factories, therefore the family was already involved in the industry.
In 1908, he founded the construction firm, Kreuger & Toll. But Ivan Kreuger earned the nickname "match king" because he returned to sell matches and had the global match monopoly for a very long period.
Ivar Kreuger took over his father's match company and merged it with other small independent match companies using money acquired via Kreuger & Toll. Following that, this firm merged with its biggest rival in the middle of the First World War's supply disruptions brought on by blockades and a lack of ships.
As more gas stoves were being adopted and more cigarettes were being smoked, there was an increase in the demand for matches worldwide. Kreuger worked along with significant international match companies to segment markets and regulate prices. Less businesses would now profit from the advantageous circumstances, especially after smaller companies, sometimes located in war-torn nations, had been bought out.
While market circumstances were good, Kreuger secured funds in Sweden and Britain to develop and solidify his company's position in the worldwide market.
Probably you are thinking that he is a good businessman. So, what went wrong?
Ivar Kreuger shot himself in the heart on March 12th, according to the media, to evade creditors after the NYSE crash. Shocking! right?
It's absolutely mind-boggling how he became so wealthy; even Kreuger had no idea how much he earned.
