Alberto Vilar

• Alberto Vilar was a wealthy investor in early internet companies who financed lawsuits that unsuccessfully tried to block Trump's construction of the Trump International Hotel and Tower near the United Nations. “The musical education of Alberto Vilar started when he first heard a violin back in his homeland of Cuba. […] What Vilar has become, as he has grown rich from early investments in Internet stocks, is the go-to patron of the arts. […] Vilar began his career in finance in 1964 with Citicorp, right in the Park Avenue building where his own offices now take up a floor. In 1980 he and a partner started his company and soon they were early investors in Microsoft, Oracle, America Online, Cisco, eBay and Yahoo! The age of the Internet was dawning. When those companies took off, Vilar became rich. […] He has a 32-room triplex near the United Nations building, filled with art, including statues of Mozart. […] And when the titan real estate developer Donald Trump was building a 72-story tower that blocked his view, Vilar financed the legal battle to stop it. He lost. “(Washington Post, April 1, 2001)