Ernest Garcia II

Ernest Garcia II (born May 1, 1957) is an American billionaire used car businessman, owner of DriveTime, convicted felon, and major shareholder of Carvana.

Ernest Garcia II
Born
Ernest Garcia

(1957-05-01) May 1, 1957
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of Arizona
OccupationBusinessman
Known forChairman and owner, DriveTime
Home townTempe, Arizona, U.S.
Net worthUS$5.6 billion (July 2019)[1]
Spouse(s)Married
ChildrenErnest Garcia III

Early life

Ernest Garcia II was born on born May 1, 1957,[2] the son of Ernest Garcia, who owned a liquor store, and was once the mayor of Gallup, New Mexico.[3] He dropped out, but eventually earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona.[3]

Career

In October 1990, Garcia, then a Tucson-based real estate developer pleaded guilty to a felony bank fraud charge for his role as a straw borrower in the collapse of Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan Association.[4][5] Garcia "fraudulently obtained a $30-million line of credit in a series of transactions that also helped Lincoln hide its ownership in risky desert Arizona land from regulators."[4] Garcia spent three years on probation, and he and his firm filed for bankruptcy.[5]

In 1991, Garcia bought Ugly Duckling, a bankrupt rent-a-car franchise, for under $1 million and merged it with his own fledgling finance company, and turned it into a company selling and financing used cars for sub-prime buyers with poor credit history.[5] Garcia took the company public on the NASDAQ exchange in 1996, trading under the ticker "UGLY".[6] In 1999, Garcia was involved in six lawsuits alleging he had "abused his position to profit" from a real estate deal where he ultimately acquired 17 company properties at a 10% discount.[5] In 2002, Garcia and the former Ugly Duckling CEO, Gregory Sullivan, took the company private and renamed it DriveTime.[7]

As of July 2019, Garcia's net worth is estimated at $5.6 billion.[8]

Personal life

He is married, and lives in Tempe, Arizona.[1] His son, Ernest Garcia III, is CEO of Carvana.[3]

Garcia owns an apartment in New York's Trump Tower.[3]

gollark: THE INSANITY MUST CONTINUE.
gollark: GIVE EVERYTHING METATABLES.
gollark: On PotatOS, due to interesting features, I think *strings* get `:dump()`.
gollark: Metatable meddling, I mean.
gollark: It's so great.

References
  1. "Forbes profile: Ernest Garcia II". Forbes. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  2. https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/ernie-garcia/
  3. Vardi, Nathan. "How An Ex-Con Became A Billionaire From Used Cars". Forbes. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  4. GRANELLI, JAMES S. (31 October 1990). "Lincoln S&L Figure Pleads Guilty to Fraud : Crime: Ernest C. Garcia II admits acting to help the thrift hide its ownership of some risky desert land in Arizona". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 January 2018 – via LA Times.
  5. Vardi, Nathan. "Feathered Nest". Forbes. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  6. Services, Larry BaumanDow Jones News (1996-06-19). "Small Stocks Fall Sharply, Hurt by Technology Sector". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-04-30.
  7. "DriveTime car chain coming to Denver". Denver Business Journal. January 31, 2007.
  8. "How the richest person in each state made a fortune". Stacker. Retrieved 2020-04-06.


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