Kyle Bass

After making his name betting against the American housing market — a wager immortalized in “The Big Short” — Kyle Bass has rarely shied away from unpopular convictions.

He made a more local prediction about Dallas-based lender United Development Fund IV. In 2015, Bass started shorting stocks of UDF based on allegations that the fund was a Ponzi scheme. Bass claimed it was using new investor money to pay existing investors in faltering earlier funds and also argued UDF’s biggest borrower, Centurion American, was complicit. Four UDF execs ended up in prison but Centurion American founder Mehrdad Moayedi emerged relatively unscathed. Still, Bass was unsatisfied with the SEC’s findings and bought stakes in multiple Centurion American projects in an effort to do his own digging into the company.

For his latest act, Bass intends to drill into the massive Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer in East Texas and pump water to other parts of the state. The move has drawn the ire of locals; Bass is suing the local groundwater conservation district for holding up the process. 

Prior to founding Hayman Capital Management, he quickly rose the ranks at Bear Stearns and then worked at Legg Mason. The Dallas native founded Hayman in 2005. 

— Jess Hardin