Sir Tom Hunter: 'I did want to give my money away. Just not quite like this.'

In July 2007, Sir Tom Hunter pledged to give away £1bn. Eighteen months on, that dream is unravelling as fast as his investment empire.

In July 2007, when Sir Tom Hunter was at the top of his game, his pledge to give away £1bn earned him star billing on the BBC's Ten O'Clock News. Interviewed in the garden of his £50m mansion on the Cote D'Azur, Hunter who made his first fortune selling shell suits and trainers cut a relaxed and confident figure as Britain's foremost venture philanthropist. Eighteen months on, that dream is unravelling as fast as his West Coast Capital investment empire. The yacht has gone, the Cap Ferrat mansion has been sold and, last week, his flagship fashion chain USC lurched into administration. To his credit, Hunter retains his gallows humour. "I did want to give my money away," he told The Sunday Times. "I just didn't expect it to be in quite this way."

Hunter admits he made mistakes, says the Daily Mail. He borrowed heavily to pile into everything from garden centres to housebuilders. Still, given his well-meaning intentions, "no one could enjoy watching the implosion of [his] empire". Making money is "only half the equation", said Hunter, taking his cue from the 19th-century Scottish-American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie ("a man who dies rich dies disgraced"). His charitable foundation stretched from Scottish schools to Live Aid. Rivals sniped that Hunter was trying to buy a stairway to heaven; but there were earthly rewards too. The prize for being a paid-up member of the international philanthropy set was having Bill Clinton's number on speed-dial and a Learjet on standby. Hunter, who liked to meet old school-friends for fish and chips, remained true to his Ayrshire roots. But he lived a dreamy sort of life in the playgrounds of the super-rich. "My wife Marion and myself are going to leave this world pretty much as we came into it, with nothing," said this would-be "new Carnegie". They had quite a lot of fun along the way.

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