[1] He served as the chairman and CEO of Winnick & Company, a private equity firm that he originally established as Pacific Capital Group in 1985.

A son of Blanche and Arnold Winnick,[5] whose father owned a restaurant supply business in the greater New York Metropolitan Area.

[13] He allegedly sold large amounts of his Global Crossing stock while having non-public information about the company's financial troubles and impending bankruptcy.

They allegedly downplayed the company's financial problems and painted an overly positive picture of its prospects, which led some investors to make ill-informed decisions.

[16] Winnick and other executives were also criticized for their excessive compensation packages, with CNN Money describing him as an "emperor of greed" for using Global Crossing as his "personal bank account.

[citation needed] In 2000, Winnick and his wife purchased and restored "Casa Encantada", the former Conrad Hilton estate — a 40,000-square-foot, 1930s-era trophy property in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.