The brothers who filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Dallas last week were no down-and-outers. The long list of possessions mentioned in the filing included Hawaiian real estate, half interest in a Vail, Colo., ski lodge, two Cadillacs, a Mercedes-Benz and a 13,649-piece Byzantine coin collection. But the petitioners, oil heirs Nelson Bunker and Herbert Hunt, realized that their fabled wealth -- still about $1 billion even after many years of financial setbacks -- was in danger of being wiped out by their burgeoning legal problems.
Last month a federal jury found that Bunker and Herbert, along with their brother Lamar,...