Louis Bacon

Louis Moore Bacon (born July 25, 1956) is an American investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist.

He is the founder and chief executive of Moore Capital Management.

As of February 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$1.5 billion.

Bacon was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on July 25, 1956.

His father, Zachary Bacon Jr., founded real estate company Bacon & Co. and later led Prudential Financial’s and Merrill Lynch’s real estate efforts in North Carolina.

Bacon graduated from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia.

He attended Middlebury College in Vermont where he received his BA in American literature, graduating in 1979.

Bacon met Walter Frank while he was working on a fishing boat on Long Island.

He was given a job clerking at the specialist firm Walter N. Frank & Co during the summers of his college years.

He subsequently received his MBA degree in finance at Columbia Business School in 1981.

While at Columbia, Bacon traded commodities using a low interest loan he had received.

During the first three semesters, he lost money and was forced to borrow money from his father to pay for necessities.

He turned a profit during his fourth semester.

After receiving his MBA, Bacon joined the sales and trading program at Bankers Trust.

Later he left the firm and returned to Walter N. Frank & Co. where he traded currencies.

Bacon took a job on the floor of the New York Cotton Exchange, working as a "runner".

Bacon later worked as a broker and trader of financial futures at Shearson Lehman Brothers and eventually became the senior vice president for their futures trading division.

In 1987 Bacon founded Remington Trading Partners.

His market insights allowed him to profit during the market crash and subsequent rebound.

In 1989, Bacon used his middle name when he founded Moore Capital Management LLC; in 1990 he founded Moore Global Investments, using $25,000 inherited from his family.

In 2005, Nygård installed a large concrete slab on Louis Bacon's property and then Bacon sought and obtained a court injunction to remove it.

In 2006, Forbes magazine ranked Bacon as the 746th richest person in the world; in 2011 it ranked him as the 736th richest man.

From 2007 onwards, the dispute escalated to include 16 legal actions between Nygård and Louis Bacon and their associates.

In 2007, Bacon, installed industrial-grade speakers at the edge of his property and pointed them at Nygård's house.

In 2010, the Denver Post reported that Bacon's net worth of $1.6 billion ranked him as the 238th richest American.

In March 2010 Forbes Magazine estimated Bacon's net worth to be $1.5 billion, and ranked him as the 655th richest person in the world.

In the summer of 2010, Bacon's house was raided by Bahamian police, leading to the confiscation of the speakers.

Bacon claimed it was the work of Nygård, a claim he denied.

In May 2011, Bacon obtained a court order in Great Britain, where he owned property, compelling the Wikimedia Foundation, WordPress and the Denver Post to reveal the identity of anonymous persons who allegedly defamed him on their websites.

The court granted Bacon's application to serve a Norwich Pharmacal Order by email against these websites.

Bacon sought the order so that he could launch defamation proceedings against online commenters he alleged to have posted libelous material about him on these websites.

In May 2011, the High Court in London granted Bacon a court order to obtain information from the Wikimedia Foundation, The Denver Post, and WordPress as to the identities of internet users alleged to have defamed him by their postings.

Legal experts suggested compliance with the orders was unlikely, given the US tradition of freedom of speech, and the fact that US courts typically required "actual evidence or sufficient allegations of libel" before granting similar orders.

Legal experts did not believe the order was enforceable in the United States because of its policy related to freedom of speech.

Initially, the Foundation agreed to give the information to Bacon's solicitors, but later said it would cooperate only with a court order in the U.S., saying "Please note that we do not comply with foreign subpoenas absent an immediate threat to life or limb."

Automattic, which owns WordPress, said Bacon would need a court order but agreed to remove any defamatory material from its websites.

He was in a legal dispute with Canadian fashion executive Peter Nygård for several years in regards starting with a dispute over their adjoining properties in Bahamas.

In December 2013, Bacon purchased Taos Ski Valley from the Blake family, who had owned it since 1954.

As of March 2022, Bacon holds a substantial interest in EV startup, Fisker Inc. with Bacon's Moore Capital Management holding 8.45 million Fisker shares.

In early 2019, it was reported that Peter Nygård had filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Court in Manhattan alleging that Bacon had violated sections of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.