The Reichmann/Reichman family is a Jewish-Canadian family best known for their property empire built through the Olympia and York company which relied on a carefully constructed image and secrecy to obtain billions in loans on property already leveraged to untenable debt loads, loans made by banks on assumptions which ultimately turned out to be wholly unjustified when the Reichmans family company was ultimately shown to be a house of cards and forced into bankruptcy owing more than twice what their family was supposedly worth. At the family's peak, their combined wealth was estimated at $13 billion, while unknown to anyone outside the family at the time of this estimation, they were actually in debt owing billions more than the family was supposedly worth to banks and creditors, the fourth-richest family on the planet on paper. The family's fortunes were found to be wildly overstated relying on bank loans and secrecy until finally they were forced to declare bankruptcy, particularly with the ill-fated Canary Wharf development and their huge debt to banks and creditors, in 1992 with debts of more than $20 billion. Since then, the family's wealth is estimated to be a fraction of the previous estimates but the family's secrecy still makes judging it impossible. History The Reichman(n)s were originally from the small town of Beled, Hungary, but the ambitious Samuel Reichmann moved the family to Vienna, Austria, in 1928 where he became a successful merchant. He and his wife Renée had six children: Eva Reichmann (married name Heller; 1923–1984) Edward Reichmann (1925–2005) Louis Reichmann (1927–2005) Albert Reichmann (1929–2022) Paul Reichmann (1930–2013) Ralph Reichmann (b. 1933) Ezriel Reichmann (b.1938) During the Second World War, the family fled first to Paris, France, and then to the neutral city of Tangier, Morocco, in the 1950s. There, Samuel became a prominent business leader specializing in the currency trade. Renée became a renowned humanitarian aiding victims of the Holocaust, arranging food parcels to be delivered through the Spanish Red Cross to concentration camps such as Theresienstadt and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Despite the financial success of life in Tangier the family left to avoid the turbulence of Moroccan independence from the French protectorate. Eva settled in London while Edward went to Montreal. There, in 1955, he founded Olympia Flooring and Tile Company to import tiles from Europe. Edward described Montreal fondly, with its large Jewish population and opportunity for profits; soon the rest of the family