Ernest Garcia II

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]

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]

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]