Thomas Barrack

Thomas Joseph Barrack Jr. was born on April 28, 1947, in Culver City, California. His Lebanese Christian grandparents immigrated from Zahlé, Lebanon. Barrack attended the University of Southern California (USC), where he played rugby and served as an editor of the Southern California Law Review. He went on to receive a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1972.

Barrack married Rachelle Roxborough in 2014, but the couple divorced in 2016. He has six children and is currently in a relationship with Hadley Gamble. His family resides in Los Angeles, California.

Barrack worked at the law firm of Herbert W. Kalmbach, President Richard Nixon's personal lawyer. In 1972, he was sent to Saudi Arabia, where he became a squash partner of a Saudi prince. He subsequently worked for the Fluor Corporation and Saudi princes in Saudi Arabia, contributing to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Haiti. Barrack also served as deputy undersecretary of the United States Department of the Interior under James G. Watt during the Reagan administration.

Barrack has been involved with several companies throughout his career. He was a principal with the Robert M. Bass Group and founded Colony Capital in 1990, with investments from Bass, GE Capital, Eli Broad, Merrill Lynch, and Koo Chen-fu. Colony Capital achieved significant profits by focusing on distressed properties and investing in Middle East real estate, non-performing German real estate loans, and a loan to photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Barrack's major achievements include negotiating drilling rights with Mana Al Otaiba, selling a stake in the Raffles L'Ermitage hotel to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and buying Jared Kushner's debt on 666 Fifth Avenue. He was ranked as the 833rd richest person in the world and 375th richest in the United States in 2011, with an estimated wealth of $1.1 billion.

Barrack also sold Paris Saint-Germain F.C. to the Qatar Investment Authority in 2012 and partnered with the same entity to purchase Miramax for $660 million in 2010, later selling it to beIN Media Group at a fourfold profit.

Barrack has received several awards and honors, including the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (2000), the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies’ Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2005), and the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (2010).

Barrack is a Roman Catholic and owns a mountain ranch near Santa Barbara, Happy Canyon Vineyards, and a tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara. He has bought and sold a house in Santa Monica for record-breaking prices and purchased a home in Aspen, Colorado, in 2017. Barrack is reportedly friends with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Barrack endorsed Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election and was a major fundraiser for his campaign. He recommended Paul Manafort as Trump's campaign manager and had loaned him money in the past. Barrack was also involved in setting up a meeting between Trump and the Emir of Qatar in 2016 and served as chairman of the committee overseeing the 2017 Trump inauguration, raising over $100 million. He was interviewed during the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and was indicted in 2021 for acting as an agent of a foreign power, obstructing justice, and making false statements to law enforcement. Barrack was found not guilty on all charges in November 2022.