(Bloomberg) -- Colony Capital LLC’s former private equity head testified that founder Tom Barrack’s ties to Middle East sovereign wealth funds were so well-known internally that a firm spreadsheet of potential investors identified those with “Barrack Magic.”

Justin Chang took the stand Tuesday as a government witness in Barrack’s trial on charges that he acted as an unregistered agent for the United Arab Emirates in trying to influence the campaign and administration of his longtime friend, Donald Trump. Chang described Colony’s efforts to raise Middle East money in 2017 and 2018.

“Let Tom do ‘what only he can do’ with the power that be in the UAE, etc.,” Chang wrote in an internal October 2017 email that prosecutors showed to jurors in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Two UAE sovereign wealth funds invested $374 million with Colony, which federal prosecutors claim motivated Barrack to act as its agent. Prosecutors allege one of the Emirati officials that Barrack took direction from was Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed, the UAE national security advisor and an influential business figure.

Mubadala Investment Co. invested $74 million in 2017, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority committed $300 million in 2018. Barrack’s defense team claims there was no connection between the investments and informal advice he gave the Trump campaign and White House.

‘Pretty Big Surprise’

On cross-examination of Chang, defense lawyer Michael Schachter tried to suggest $374 million was a relatively small amount for Colony. According to a chart shown to jurors, the firm raised $3.45 billion from Middle East investors from its 1991 inception through 2018 and more than $28 billion in total during that period.

Schachter also pointed out that another “Barrack Magic” fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Co., failed to invest with Colony despite hopes that it would commit $250 million. The defense lawyer suggested that wouldn’t have been the case if Barrack was acting as a UAE agent.

That “came as a pretty big surprise” to Barrack, Chang recalled.

Abbe Lowell, a defense lawyer for Barrack’s assistant Matthew Grimes, who is also on trial, asked Chang if Barrack ever asked him to do anything improper.

“No, he never asked me to do anything improper,” Chang testified. He also said he never witnessed Barrack telling Grimes to do anything improper.

Chang still works for DigitalBridge Group Inc., the successor to Colony.

The case is US v. Al Malik Alshahhi, 21-cr-00371, US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

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