Ulysses S. Grant
The United States' 18th president signed up to be a partner in a financial firm with a man named Ferdinand Ward. But, in 1884, Grand found out that Ward had embezzled all of their cash, and he was left bankrupt. He was receiving a pension from serving in the military, but that wasn't enough to cover his medical costs from his advanced throat cancer. Grant died while he awaited a series of memoirs that he consigned Mark Twain to write so he could make enough money to survive.