Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford has been buying distressed banks and turning them around since 1975, when he bought his first bank. His first big success was in 2002, when he and his billionaire friend Ronald Perelman sold Golden State Bancorp to Citigroup for $6 billion in stock. Ford has a 16% stake in publicly-traded banking firm Hilltop Holdings, which owns PlainsCapital Bank and property insurer National Lloyds Corp.Ford's son Jeremy Ford is co-CEO of Hilltop Holdings, and his son-in-law Corey Prestidge is general counsel and executive vice president of the firm.Ford is the majority shareholder of Mechanics Bank in California, which trades over the counter and had assets of $5.6 billion in late 2017.