What Is Tareq Salahi's Net Worth?
Tareq Salahi is an American former winemaker, public official, and television personality who has a net worth of $2 million. The Salahi family started the Oasis Winery in Hume, Virginia, in 1977, and Tareq became managing director of Oasis Vineyard Inc. in 1994. In 2008, the vineyard filed for bankruptcy, and in 2012, Salahi was sued by the Attorney General of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli II, for his business practices. Tareq then announced that he would run against Cuccinelli to become the Governor of Virginia, and after an unsuccessful run as a write-in candidate, he decided to run for Virginia's 7th congressional district seat in 2014 but did not collect enough valid signatures to get on the ballot. Salahi appeared on the Bravo reality series "The Real Housewives of D.C." alongside his then-wife, Michaele, in 2010. The couple made headlines in November 2009 after they got through two security checkpoints to attend a White House state dinner they had not been invited to and had their photos taken with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
Early Life
Tareq Salahi was born Tareq Dirgham Salahi in Washington, D.C. His father, Dirgham, immigrated to the U.S. from Jerusalem in the 1940s, and his mother, Corinne, came from Belgium. Dirgham worked as a petroleum geologist in the U.S. and Middle East, and after he retired, he decided to settle in Virginia. He owned an estate farm, and he turned it into one of the earliest Virginia Farm Wineries. Corinne founded the Montessori School of Alexandria, Virginia. Tareq studied at Ascension Academy, then he attended Randolph-Macon Academy, where he earned a rank of Squadron Commander. In 1994, he graduated from the University of California, Davis, with Bachelor of Science degrees in Business Management and Enology (the study and science of wine and winemaking). Salahi began playing polo as a teenager, and he went on to play on the U.S. National Team. His Oasis squad won the 1997 and 1998 U.S. Polo Association National Arena Titles, and he co-founded the Great Meadow Polo Club.
Career
In 1977, Dirgham planted Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Merlot vines at Oasis Vineyard, and eventually the business was selling 15,000 cases per year and sometimes grossing $1 million in annual revenue. One of the vineyard's wines won gold medals at the World Wine Championships in 1994 and 1996, and "Wine Enthusiast" named Oasis' 1999 champagne one of the "Top 10 Best Champagne and Sparkling Wines in the World." Tareq began running a new business on the grounds of Oasis Vineyard called Oasis Enterprises, which included a catering business and tours of wine country. Salahi's family filed a lawsuit against him, with his parents alleging that he "interfered with the winery's sale and falsely advertised on the Internet that Oasis was closed." In 2008, the vineyard filed bankruptcy protection, and its winery assets were auctioned off three years later. In 2009, Oasis Enterprises filed for bankruptcy, and in 2011, Tareq and his wife, Michaele, were sued for taking payment for tours that never happened. In 2012, Ken Cuccinelli II, the Attorney General of Virginia, filed a lawsuit against Salahi for violating the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. Tareq reacted to the news by announcing that he would run against Cuccinelli in the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election. In May 2013, Oasis Winery's land and buildings were sold for $1.1 million at auction.
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Salahi was a member of the board of the American Task Force, which was "dedicated to the peaceful two state solution between Israel & Palestine." In 2000, he was appointed to the Virginia Wine Board by the state's governor, Jim Gilmore, and in 2002, he was named National Man of the Year by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society after he raised more than $100,000 for the charity. Tareq has served as chairman of the Virginia Wine Tourism Office and a Virginia Tourism Corporation board member. After the 2009 White House security breach, Virginia Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment asked Governor Tim Kaine to remove Salahi from the Virginia Tourism Board, and Tareq resigned in December 2009. In 2010, Tareq and Michaele were featured in the first and only season of "The Real Housewives of D.C.," and Salahi appeared in nine episodes. He has also appeared in the documentary "Lord of the Freaks" (2015) and the TV series "City Confidential" (2000), "Power, Privilege & Justice" (2002), "America's Book of Secrets" (2012), and "Southern Fried Homicide" (2013). In 2014, Tareq competed in a celebrity boxing match on DirecTV and lost to Jose Canseco, and in 2015, he launched the blog "Connoisseur Traveler." He is also Chairman of Hotels at Sea, and according to the company's website, it is "the top cruise line consulting firm in the world."
Personal Life
Tareq met Michaele Holt at a baby shower in 2000, and they married on November 1, 2003, at Washington, D.C.'s Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. The reception took place at the Salahi family winery and featured an eight-foot wedding cake and a fireworks display. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was one of the more than 1,800 guests who attended the wedding. After the couple crashed a White House state dinner in 2009, many thought it was a stunt to promote the upcoming season of "The Real Housewives of D.C." The U.S. House of Representatives ordered Tareq and Michelle to appear at a December 2009 hearing, but they refused. They were later subpoenaed and pleaded the fifth more than 30 times at a January 2010 hearing. Before attending the hearing, Salahi told the "Loudoun Times-Mirror," "It will truly be a historic moment … Not since the 1950s has Congress held hearings of such a historic nature."
In September 2011, Michaele called to tell Tareq that she was on her way to visit her mother, but her mother informed him that Michaele never arrived. He reported Michaele missing only to find out that she had run off with Journey guitarist Neal Schon. Salahi subsequently filed for divorce, writing in court documents, "She continually exposes our friends and acquaintances to her adulterous relationship and has flaunted the same throughout the community, the nation and indeed the world, and thus caused … me to suffer great harm, humiliation and embarrassment." Michaele then filed for divorce in December 2011, accusing Tareq of "threatening her and committing violence against her, cruelty and constructive desertion." The divorce was eventually finalized in August 2012. Tareq married Lisa Spoden, his business partner, on January 1, 2016.
