Louis Bacon

Louis Moore Bacon
Louis Moore Bacon
Born	July 25, 1956 (age 70); Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Investor, hedge fund operator, philanthropist
Known for	Founder and CEO of Moore Capital Management
Notable work	Founder of Moore Capital Management LLC and Moore Global Investments

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Louis Bacon, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 11 August 2025

Louis Moore Bacon (born July 25, 1956) is a prominent American investor, hedge fund operator, and philanthropist. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Moore Capital Management.

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

Early life

Born on July 25, 1956, in Raleigh, North Carolina, Bacon is the son of Zachary Bacon Jr., who established the real estate firm Bacon & Co. and subsequently directed real estate operations for both Prudential Financial and Merrill Lynch in North Carolina.

He completed his secondary education at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, and went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree in American literature from Middlebury College in 1979. During summer breaks in college, he gained experience at Walter N. Frank & Co., a specialist firm he joined after meeting Walter Frank while working on a fishing vessel near Long Island. Bacon later obtained an MBA with a focus on finance from Columbia Business School in 1981.

While studying at Columbia, he began trading commodities using funds borrowed at low interest. Despite early setbacks that required financial assistance from his father, he achieved profitability by his fourth academic term.

Investment career

Following his MBA, Bacon entered the sales and trading program at Bankers Trust before returning to Walter N. Frank & Co. to engage in currency trading. He also performed duties as a "runner" on the floor of the New York Cotton Exchange, progressing to roles as a broker and financial futures trader at Shearson Lehman Brothers, where he ultimately held the position of senior vice president within their futures trading division.

In 1987, Bacon launched Remington Trading Partners, applying market acumen to capitalize on opportunities during the 1987 market crash and subsequent recovery. He founded Moore Capital Management LLC in 1989 and followed with Moore Global Investments in 1990, initiating operations with $25,000 inherited from his family.

By 2006, Forbes listed him as the 746th wealthiest individual worldwide; five years later, he ranked 736th. The Denver Post reported his net worth at $1.6 billion in 2010, ranking him as the 238th richest person in the United States. In March 2010, Forbes valued his wealth at $1.5 billion, placing him 655th globally.

In December 2013, Bacon purchased Taos Ski Valley, a ski resort held by the Blake family since 1954.

As of March 2022, Moore Capital Management maintained a substantial position in electric vehicle manufacturer Fisker Inc., holding approximately 8.45 million shares.

Libel suit

In May 2011, Bacon obtained a court order in the United Kingdom requiring the Wikimedia Foundation, WordPress, and the Denver Post to reveal the identities of anonymous users accused of online defamation against him. The London High Court issued a Norwich Pharmacal Order to assist Bacon's defamation claims against these individuals.

Legal analysts questioned whether such orders could be enforced within the United States due to robust free speech protections and stringent evidentiary standards for issuing such demands. Initially, the Wikimedia Foundation agreed to provide information to Bacon's legal representatives but later restricted their cooperation exclusively to U.S. court orders, citing non-compliance with foreign subpoenas unless immediate harm was evident. Automattic, owner of WordPress, required judicial authorization but pledged to remove defamatory material from its platforms.

Legal disputes involving Peter Nygård

Louis Bacon engaged in an extended legal battle with Canadian fashion entrepreneur Peter Nygård concerning adjacent properties located in The Bahamas. This dispute, which began in 2007, resulted in 16 separate lawsuits involving Nygård and associates linked to Bacon. In 2005, Nygård constructed a concrete slab on Bacon's land, leading Bacon to secure a court order demanding its removal. Two years later, Bacon installed high-powered speakers directed toward Nygård's home. In 2010, Bahamian authorities raided Bacon’s residence and seized the speakers; Bacon blamed Nygård for this action, though Nygård denied any involvement.

In 2019, Nygård initiated a lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court accusing Bacon of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). According to Vanity Fair, Nygård operated fake news websites to defame Bacon, prompting Bacon to pursue a defamation suit in 2015. On May 5, 2023, a judge in New York awarded Bacon damages exceeding $203 million, determining that Nygård had orchestrated a nearly decade-long international campaign aimed at "personally and professionally ruining Bacon."

Personal life

Bacon married Cynthia Pigott, a former Newsweek journalist, in 1986; the couple had four children before divorcing in 2002. That same year, he was granted Austrian citizenship under a special provision recognizing distinguished accomplishments, though this was met with criticism due to a lack of clear contributions to Austria.

In 2007, Bacon wed Gabrielle Sacconaghi in Manhattan. The couple resided in Oyster Bay, New York, and had three children before their divorce in 2022.

Later in November 2007, Bacon purchased the 171,400-acre Trinchera Ranch located in Costilla County, Colorado from the Forbes family for $175 million. In 2010, he acquired the historic Orton Plantation in North Carolina, originally constructed in 1735 by one of his ancestors.

Bacon married Sarah Woodhead in March 2025. He has an elder brother named Zack.

Political and economic views

Between 2010 and 2016, Bacon donated £500,000 to the British Conservative Party. Additionally, he acted as a fundraiser for American politician Mitt Romney and contributed $1 million in 2015 to a Super PAC supporting Jeb Bush's presidential bid.

Wealth

In 1991, Bacon was ranked twentieth among Financial World's Top 100 Wall Street earners.

Philanthropy

The Moore Charitable Foundation (MCF) was founded by Bacon in 1992 to aid nonprofit organizations dedicated to wildlife habitat conservation and water system enhancements. His contributions include more than one million dollars donated to the environmental group Riverkeeper.

In June 2012, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Fish and Wildlife Service Director Daniel M. Ashe announced that Bacon planned to donate a conservation easement encompassing roughly 90,000 acres within the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Colorado’s San Luis Valley. This easement is intended to establish the core of the proposed Sangre de Cristo Conservation Area.

Bacon owns the Trinchera Blanca Ranch situated in the San Luis Valley. While the Trinchera portion is protected by an easement held by Colorado Open Lands, the newly planned easement will safeguard Blanca as well—preserving all 172,000 acres of the ranch.

Outside Colorado, Bacon has also conserved ecologically sensitive lands across New York, North Carolina, and The Bahamas. Notable projects include:

Robins Island, Long Island, New York: Purchased by Bacon in 1993; he secured permanent protection through a conservation easement and began restoration efforts for the island’s declining natural habitat.
Cow Neck Farm, Long Island, New York: Acquired in 1998 by Cow Neck Preserve LLC (owned by Bacon), which granted a 540-acre conservation easement to Peconic Land Trust to prevent future development.
Lyford Cay, Bahamas: Bacon actively supports environmental restoration initiatives at Lyford Cay.

Legacy and Honors

In 2008, he was inducted into the Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame by Institutional Investors Alpha.

He was awarded the Audubon Medal in 2013 in recognition of his exceptional contributions to conservation and environmental stewardship. In 2016, Bacon earned the Lifetime Conservation Achievement Award from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, acknowledging his role in securing conservation easements spanning more than 210,600 acres across the United States.

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