On July 20, 74-year-old Thomas Joseph Barrack, the founder of the private equity firm Colony Capital, was detained in Los Angeles on federal charges.

Barrack and two others - Matthew Grimes, 27, and a UAE citizen Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, 43, who is yet to be arrested - were charged with illegally lobbying for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) when former US President Donald Trump was running for- and serving as- president.

Barrack, whose bail is pending till the next hearing on July 25, is a resident of Santa Monica (California), a private equity investor, and a ‘good’ friend and confidante of Donald Trump.

Listed in Forbes as a billionaire, he was also the chairman of Trump’s 2017 inaugural celebration. Barack, who had Lebanese immigrant grandparents, built his fortune in Los Angeles by buying bad real estate loan assets. He is believed to have bought around $200 million worth of such assets in the Middle East and $534 million in non-performing German real estate loans.

Barack founded Colony Capital in 1991 and resigned as executive chairman in April 2020. On June 8, Colony Capital, Inc. announced a corporate rebranding of the Company to DigitalBridge, effective June 22, 2021.

DigitalBridge claims to be a leading global digital infrastructure REIT. The DigitalBridge team claims to manage a $32 billion portfolio of digital infrastructure assets on behalf of its limited partners and shareholders.

Headquartered in Boca Raton, DigitalBridge claims key offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Singapore.

Barrack never registered with the US federal government (as per the Foreign Agents Registration Act) as an agent of the UAE.

The US authorities allege that he was influencing the foreign policy during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and later when Trump became the US president (until April 2018).

Barrack allegedly advised American officials informally on the Middle East (ME) policy. He also lobbied for his appointment for a senior role in the American government (as US ambassador to the UAE) and as a special envoy to the ME.

Barrack allegedly provided the UAE with confidential information about internal matters of the US government including the views of many senior US officials on sensitive issues.

It has also been alleged that Barrack met and helped senior leaders of Saudi Arabia, which is a close ally of the UAE.

Barrack is also charged with obstructing justice and making many false statements when law enforcement authorities interviewed him in June 2019.