One-time billionaire Nathan Tinkler is not contesting a legal order declaring him to be bankrupt, after he failed to make a AU$2.8 Million payment on his Dassault Falcon 900C private jet.  

"I would like to apologise to the creditors and my family," Mr. Tinkler said on Thursday morning.

A decade ago, the former mining electrician scraped together AU$1 Million to put down as a deposit on a coal mine that clearly didn't impress its former owners.  18 months later, it returned a profit of AU$442 Million and propelled him on the wave of the mining boom to become Australia's youngest billionaire.

But years of extravagant payouts on sports teams, race horses, and homes in Hawaii preceded the collapse in coal prices.  And the bottom started to fall, Tinkler was forced to sell assets. 

"To be honest, there aren't that many assets to chase anymore," said Tinkler's bankruptcy trustee John Melluish.  ""There's not a lot there."

Tinkler attempted a comeback in mining late last year as chief executive of Australian Pacific Coal.  But Australian law forbids bankrupt individuals from managing corporations, being a director, alternative director or sectretary of a company unless given leave by a court.  And Tinkler now says he won't even have an advisory role with that company.