The Ledger / Ben Navarro
Ben Navarro
◼ Origin
Navarro worked in investment banking at Chemical Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup before co-founding Sherman Financial Group in 1998, a distressed consumer debt acquisition firm based in Charleston, South Carolina. Sherman expanded into credit card issuance through a significant stake in Credit One Bank (formerly First National Bank of Marin), a Las Vegas-based bank targeting subprime borrowers (credit scores below 660) that grew to over 18 million active accounts.
◼ Self-Made Verdict — YES
Navarro came from a modest background and built Sherman Financial from scratch after a Wall Street career, without documented inherited wealth or business. His fortune derives from founding and building Sherman Financial and Credit One Bank.
◼ Documented marks
01
Founder and CEO of Sherman Financial Group, a Charleston, SC-based firm specializing in distressed consumer debt acquisition and management
02
Significant minority owner of Credit One Bank, with 18+ million active accounts — the 7th-largest Visa/Mastercard issuer in the US by active accounts
03
Credit One targets subprime borrowers (credit scores below 660), charging fees and rates typical of high-risk consumer lending
04
Founded Meeting Street Schools, a network of charter schools in Charleston, SC
05
Bid unsuccessfully to purchase the NFL Carolina Panthers franchise in 2018; prominent Republican political donor
No inheritance, or primary accounts documented for this billionaire yet.
◼ List of charges
Total sentence
0–0 years
That is
0.0–0.0 life sentences
(using 78 years as one life)
At $1 million per day
Ben Navarro's fortune would last 13 years
0.2 lifetimes of luxury — before running out.
These are moral charges, not legal ones. The actual legal system has not — and will not — bring them.
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