Ramy El-Batrawi

Early life
Ramy El-Batrawi was born in 1961 in Geneva, Switzerland of Egyptian descent. He was the second of three children. His family moved to Paris for two years then immigrated to the United States in 1968. In 1970 the family moved to Montreal, Quebec Canada. Ramy El-Batrawi finished elementary school, then attended Outremont High School and Westmont High School.Ramy El-Batrawi read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill at age of 12 and that motivated him to a point where he left home at the age of 13. He hitched hiked to Tampa, Florida to begin his life. Ramy El-Batrawi displayed instant interest in business. He was homeless for 4 years but was never discouraged.Business career
At the age of 17 he started one of his first successful business ventures, Ramy El-Batrawi Started a Key Center in Zaire’s Department store and expanded throughout the chain. Ramy El-Batrawi made his first million before he turned 18. Within the next year Ramy El-Batrawi lost it all based on his lack of experience in understanding some basic fundamentals. By 1984, at age of 23 El-Batrawi made it back and more and built a net worth of more than $50 million. Ramy El-Batrawi owned many companies including Customer Van Centers, a Captive Insurance Company, and Real Estate Investments.The Adnan Khashoggi years
Ramy El-Batrawi was watching Television in the late 80’s and saw a 1-hour special on Adnan Khashoggia Saudi billionaire and businessman on Robin Leachshow of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Ramy El-Batrawi pursued Adnan Khashoggi for over two years till Adnan Khashoggi relented and let Ramy El-Batrawi work with him. From 1987 – 1994 Ramy El-Batrawi worked with Adnan Khashoggi in facilitating and negotiating significant transactions between major global industrial companies and international governments.Negotiated lucrative deals among Fortune 500 companies such as Lockheed Corporation, Carnival Cruise Lines Inc., Lonrho, Inc., McDonalds Corporation and Eastern Airlines. Instrumental in Structuring multiple large transactions including a $12B pipeline deal in Sudan.GenesisIntermedia, Inc.
Ramy El-Batrawi formed Genesis Media group, Inc in late 1993, changed the Name to GenesisIntermedia, Inc before taking it public in 1998 under the symbol GENI. GenesisIntermedia was a marketing and incubator company. The Company was very successful and the stock rose at an average of 160% a year until the events of the 9/11 attack of 2001.Prior to the attack of September 11 attacks GenesisIntermedia (GENI) became a battleground between the shareholders of GENI, led by Ramy El-Batrawi, and short sellers intent on destroying the company. This battle began in 2000 and hit a fever pitch in 2001 till the stock was halted when the market crashed after the attack of September 11 attacks.Some of the facts surrounding this battle:
• Corrupt FBI agents worked for the short sellers
• Many of the short sellers were illegal naked short sellers
• Multiple legal cases, including criminal cases, have resulted from the Battle for GENIThis battle between Ramy El-Batrawi and illegal short selling is an example of pure greed and corruption. Ramy El-Batrawi has been sued and lost millions of dollars in this battle. When it was all said and done Ramy El-Batrawi was vindicated and several people including two FBI special agents were convicted of criminal acts including, fraud, extortion and perjury, all related to GenesisIntermedia.At the end of a seven-year investigation the justice department found no wrongdoing by Ramy El-Batrawi. The class action suit that was filled against GenesisIntermedia and Ramy El-Batrawi was declassified as a class and then later dismissed. Just before the statue of limitations expired the SEC  filed a lawsuit in haste. The SEC lawsuit was settled without any fines and Ramy El-Batrawi entered in a consent decree with the SEC not admitting or denying any of the allegations to avoid any further legal bills.The true culprits of the GENI Debacle were illegal shorter’s including famed shorter Anthony Elgindy. Also involved where three FBI agents Jeffrey Royer, Lynn Wingate and Cleveland.On May 22, 2002, FBI agents Jeffrey A. Royer and Lynn Wingate were indicted for engaging in securities fraud, racketeering and obstruction of justice. An extortion charge was also filed against Jeffrey Royer.Elgindy was arrested  in San Diego in May 2002 along with FBI agents Jeffrey Royer and Lynn Wingate, who have been using their FBI positions to feed information on various corporations to Elgindy.Elgindy used his site to give the impression that he was a selfless “crusader,” thus further exaggerating his influence. At trial Michaelson testified, the defendant “lied all the time. Exaggerated, enhanced himself. Made himself look good.” As noted, he outright lied with respect to GENI. All of these deceptions served to intentionally enhance the defendant’s ability to influence trading and prices.SEC Attorney Rob Long testified that agent Royer contacted him in January 2001 with information on Genesis Intermedia (GENI) that he had received from Mr. Elgindy. Long then contacted Mr. Elgindy several times and Mr. Elgindy gave him additional information about GENI. In fact, Long requested Mr. Elgindy’s report on GENI, contacted Mr. Elgindy to “follow up” on GENI, and received and reviewed the email alert on GENI from Insidetruth.com

For GENI, and other stocks, the government submitted evidence of the dissemination of alleged law enforcement information on the website through chat logs. The government submitted evidence of dissemination of law enforcement information to Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Elgindy. Royer and Cleveland passed confidential law enforcement information to the defendant, who then passed the information to AP members, concerning GenesisIntermedia (“GENI”) and other stocks.

-On July 2001 Ramy El-Batrawi sourced acquisitions for Genesisintermedia and arranged $100 million in acquisition loan commitment from Carl Icahn’s Riverdale, LLC for GenesisIntermedia, Inc.

Through Ramy El-Batrawi’s equity management companies Genesis Diversified Investment Group, LLC, Diversified Investment Management Group, LLC, Growth Strategy Investments, LLC, IBS Capital Management, LLC, and X, LLC structured many transactions amongst them were:

-In December of 1998 Ramy El-Batrawi acquired Global Leisure Travel, Inc., which was a pioneer in consolidation in the travel industry. GLT’s annual gross sales in 1998 were approximately $220 million. GLT was the parent company of several travel-related companies including Maupintour, a 48-year old escorted tour operator based in Lawrence, Kansas; Sunmakers, a quality “sun” destination independent travel package provider based in Seattle; Jetset Tours, a nationally renowned discount air consolidator; and Regency Pacific, a specialist to Asian destinations. Other companies under the GLT umbrella included Kailani World Travel, Hawaii Leisure and Cruise Alaska Tours. In 2000 Mr. El-Batrawi sold the company in part to Carl Icahn and in part to Travel Buy US.com.

-In 2002 Ramy El-Batrawi successfully structured approximately $18 billion in equity and debt financing in connection with a bid for Vivendi Universal. Ramy El-Batrawi successfully put together a consortium of high net worth individuals and private equity firms, which consisted of Marvin Davis, Texas Pacific Group, Apax, Allen & Co, The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital, Blackstone, and others for a total equity of $10Billion.  He also arranged debt financing of $8Billion from JP Morgan, Fleet Bank, and Deutsche Bank.

-In February 2004 Ramy El-Batrawi partnered with the Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies, another Los Angeles-based private equity firm, to acquire the assets and ongoing operations of Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc.  pursuant to Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code. Piccadilly Cafeterias is one of the largest cafeteria restaurant chains in the United States and is the dominant one in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions. Founded in 1944, Piccadilly operated 132 cafeterias in 15 states.

-In July 2005 formed Era Aviation Investment Group, LLC to negotiate and win a bid for Era Aviation Inc., who operates the largest regional airline in Alaska. Ramy El-Batrawi was able to raise all the equity and Debt for the acquisition. Era was sold to Frontier Airline.

-In September 2005 Ramy El-Batrawi sourced and finalized the acquisition of Aloha Airlines with The Yucaipa Companies, LLC and formed Aloha Aviation Investment Group, LLC for a substantial equity investment in Aloha Airlines pursuant to a Plan of Reorganization.

-In 2006 Ramy El-Batrawi sourced Neways International. He successfully negotiated a purchase price of $700 Million and was able to get an exclusive on the acquisition. Ramy El-Batrawi was able to structure $350 Million in equity and $350 Million in debt financing. Successfully put together Newbridge and Yucaipa for the equity portion. Arranged the debt through Jefferies and Company. But after the Mowers, the owners of Neways, could not come to an agreement because of their brutal divorce the judge sold the company on the courthouse steps and was bought by Golden Gate Capital.

-Other transactions that Ramy El-Batrawi structured or acquired included: Mars and Venus Counseling Centers, Inc., Genesis Aviation, Inc., Genesis Aviation II, Inc., Sentient, Inc., Conscious Enlightenment, Phenforum, LLC, Gigbucks, LLC, angrybirdsnow.com

X LLC
Since May of 2015 Ramy El-Batrawi is structuring transaction though his private equity management firm X, LLC and in 2016 is working on closing one $2 billion transaction and one $575 million transaction.

Personal Life

-From the late 90’s to the early 2000’s, El-Batrawi was one of the biggest gamblers in Las Vegas. He was featured in the book Whale hunt in the desert under the alias Gus Johnson.

-Ramy El-Batrawi was featured in many different television episodes on high rollers.

-His personal interest is to motivate people to achieve success.

-Ramy El-Batrawi was interviewed by Monique Guild on June 12, 2008

Philanthropy and honor
In 2000 Ramy El-Batrawi was honored through his selection to participate on the entrepreneurial panel in GB2000, The Graduate Business Conference hosted by UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. The Graduate Business Conference was conceived in the fall of 1982 at Columbia Business School, and has been an annual event for MBA students since the spring of 1983. The Conference has been hosted at Columbia University, Duke University, the Wharton School and UC-Berkeley, among others.

In October 2004 Ramy El-Batrawi supported Pepperdine University [34] Hispanic council. The funds were allocated to the sponsorship of the first annual American Spirit Awarddinner on September 24th 2004.

In November, 2004 The Chief of police William Barton of Los Angeles, Sheriff Lee Baca, then Mayor Hahn and the many community leaders who joined the effort thank Mr. Ramy El-Batrawi for his support and effort on Public Safety and Homeland Security—yes on Measure A.

In June 2006 Ramy El-Batrawi was honored as humanitarian of the year for his involvement with the Donald T Sterling homeless and medical center