7 Most Mysterious Disappearances of Billionaires

This week, the world was riveted by the disappearance of the Titan submersible, an underwater vehicle that offered a chance to explore the wreckage of the USS Titanic on the ocean floor to those who could afford the $250,000 fare. Among those aboard the missing vessel is the British explorer and billionaire Hamish Harding, 58. He's not the only billionaire to disappear under mysterious circumstances. Read on to find out about six more.

The Titan went missing on June 18, about two hours into its expedition to visit the Titanic, which lies about two miles below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean. Multiple—and their planes, ships, radar and sonar—have joined the search for the submersible, which has been reported to be about the size of a box truck and operated by a device similar to a video game controller. The vanishing is utterly mysterious: Although 10,000 square miles have been searched, there is no sign of the vessel, and it's unclear what could have caused it to disappear. Experts say it may have sunk, become caught in the water column, or experienced a fire or another technical failure. Time will tell, but time is running out to find survivors: The vessel was only equipped with 96 hours of oxygen. 

Alibaba founder Jack Ma, the then-richest person in China, disappeared in late 2020 after criticizing the country's financial regulators. Although Ma donated more than $10 billion to the "Common Prosperity" fund, he was not seen in China in nearly three years. In late March, the South China Morning Post reported Ma had returned to the country after more than a year overseas. There was no explanation for his absence. "It was rumored that he had been placed under house arrest or had been otherwise detained," BBC News reported. Ma had recently given up control of the tech giant Ant Group. "It was seen by some commentators as further evidence that he had fallen foul of the Chinese Communist Party for becoming outspoken and too powerful," the BBC said. Ma joined Tokyo University in Japan as a visiting professor this month. 

Several other Chinese billionaires have disappeared from public view in recent years, CNBC reported in April. In 2015, Guo Guangchang, who is known as China's Warren Buffett, went missing. His company later said he was assisting authorities with an investigation. In 2017, Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua was abducted by Chinese security agents from Hong Kong. In 2022, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for fraud and corruption. In February, investment banker Bao Fan disappeared. A few days later, his company said he was "cooperating in an investigation being carried out by certain authorities in the People's Republic of China."

In April 2018, Karl-Erivan Haub, 58, a German-American retail billionaire and one of the richest men in the world, was training for a ski race when he disappeared under Matterhorn peak, located on the Switzerland-Italy border. He was last seen on the morning of April 7, as he boarded a ski lift at the Zermatt resort with skis and a backpack. His family gave up hope of finding him alive after a week. In May 2021, a German court declared Haub—who was born in Tacoma, Washington, and held dual U.S.-German citizenship—legally dead.  However, there were lingering rumors that Haub faked his own death, and last month, the Daily Mail reported that an investigation by Germany's Stern and RTL "claims to have identified Haub in Moscow with 90% certainty through FSB secret service facial recognition cameras."

Guma Aguiar, the CEO of Leor Energy, sold his Texas-based natural gas company to a Canadian concern for $2.55 billion in 2007. In 2012, he went fishing on his 31-foot sailboat and vanished off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale. The vessel was found on a nearby beach with its lights on and its twin outboard engines running, and cellphone and wallet aboard. He was declared legally dead in 2015, although no trace of him has been found. Two days after his disappearance, his mother filed to place his fortune under conservatorship, writing that Aguiar "disappeared as the result of mental derangement or other mental cause" or disappeared "under circumstances indicating that he may have died, either naturally, or accidentally." The filing stated that he suffered from "severe bipolar disorder."