A billion dollars isn't what it used to be.

In 1989 in a settlement with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission Nelson Bunker Hunt was fined US$10 million and banned from trading in the commodity markets as a result of civil charges of conspiring to manipulate the silver market stemming from his attempt to corner the market in silver. dollars to "The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty" (NEPL) a conservative fundraising organization later heavily implicated in the Iran-Contra affair. Among his horses Hunt bred or raced Vaguely Noble Dahlia Empery Youth Exceller Trillion Glorious Song Dahar and Estrapade.

He is best known as a former billionaire whose fortune collapsed after he and his brother William Herbert Hunt tried but failed to corner the world market in silver. He is also a successful thoroughbred horse breeder.