It’s a rough business, one that can involve sticking those who are already struggling financially with onerous fees, badgering them multiple times a day for weeks on end if they fall behind on their payments, and taking them to court over several hundred dollars.

Navarro doesn’t boast about how he got so rich. Most see him mainly as the father of tennis star Emma Navarro or a generous philanthropist. His longtime partner Brett Hildebrand, 63, is worth an estimated $2.8 billion, and is even more reclusive than Navarro. 

They have good reasons for the low profiles. Navarro and Hildebrand, whose role in the business has never before been detailed, have become two of America’s wealthiest people at the expense of some of the country’s most financially vulnerable. The vast majority of their wealth comes from Las Vegas-based Credit One, a credit card bank that targets subprime customers.

Americans are borrowing more than ever, with U.S. household debt (excluding mortgages) hitting a record $5 trillion last year. Many can’t afford to borrow so much. More than 100 million people, an astounding 42% of the U.S. adult population, have bad (or no) credit, according to a 2022 study published by the credit bureau Experian and consulting firm Oliver Wyman. But many still want credit cards.

That’s where Credit One has stepped in, targeting customers from “all walks of life,” including the “one in three Americans considered to be below ‘prime,’ ” as described by a Credit One spokesperson, and turning this risky segment into a cash cow.