‘FINANCIAL TIMES’ NAMES GEORGE SOROS PERSON OF THE YEAR
AMY SPIRO
The Financial Times announced on Wednesday that its 2018 person of the year was Jewish billionaire, investor and philanthropist George Soros.
The newspaper called the 88-year-old the “father of the hedge fund industry and one of the world’s most prominent philanthropists,” who has “tirelessly supported” a liberal democratic order around the globe. The article noted that the selection of Soros is both a reflection of his achievements and also “about the values he represents.”
While Soros, the founder of the Open Society Foundation, has been active for over 30 years, he has found himself the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories and baseless allegations about his activities.
“I’m blamed for everything, including being the anti-Christ,” Soros told the Times. “I wish I didn’t have so many enemies, but I take it as an indication that I must be doing something right.”
Among the particularly odious claims is the repeated attack from opponents that Soros collaborated with the Nazis as a teenager. Soros, who was 14 when the Nazis invaded Hungary, was sent to live with a non-Jewish official in the country to hide him from the Nazis. During that period, he accompanied the official on visits to take inventory of confiscated Jewish property, an activity he never actively took part in.
Earlier this year, Soros was one of a slew of people in the US, who received explosive devices in the mail.
But Soros’s decades of activity have often resulted in charges of meddling in foreign affairs around the globe.
An exclusive report by The Jerusalem Post in March revealed that an group funded by Soros worked to focus German influence in Hungary in order to lobby against Hungary’s NGO law, which limits funding for non-governmental organizations.
Soros has also focused some of his efforts in Israel, funding in the past organizations like Breaking the Silence, J Street, the New Israel Fund and Adalah, an Israeli-Arab legal aid organization.
Soros told the Times that he is considering becoming more active in Israel, and is particularly dismayed by the recent Nation-State Law.
In 2017, the Times named software engineer and activist Susan Fowler as its person of the year, in 2016 it selected US President Donald Trump and in 2015 it chose German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
French court convicts Soros of insider trading
Staff and agencies [ Fri 20 Dec 2002 14.40 GMT ]
A French court today convicted US billionaire investor George Soros of insider trading and fined him 2.2m euros.
The fine by the court is the same amount the Hungarian-born magnate was accused of having made from buying stocks at French bank Société Générale with insider knowledge 14 years ago. The fine was in line with the request by prosecutors.
Mr Soros, 72, the president of Soros Fund Management, denies having privileged information. He was not in court today.
In court testimony in November, Mr Soros said: “I have been in business all my life, and I think I know what is insider trading and what isn’t.”
Société Générale was privatised in 1987. A year later, its stock price went up during an unsuccessful takeover bid. Mr Soros was accused of having obtained insider information before the abortive corporate raid pushed up the stock price.
Mr Soros went on trial with two other men, Jean-Charles Naouri, a former top aide to France’s then-finance minister Pierre Beregovoy, and Lebanese businessman Samir Traboulsi. The court cleared both men of any wrongdoing. Prosecutors had sought fines of 290,000 euros for Mr Naouri and 1.98m euros for Mr Traboulsi.
Mr Soros has said he was interested in Société Générale based on information he claims was widely known: France’s leftist government of the time favoured takeovers to change the leadership at recently privatised companies. Mr Soros said he was buying stock in many companies and had no reason not to include Société Générale.
Afterward, he sold the stock, saying he felt the takeover attempt was politically motivated and was not going to benefit the company.
Mr Soros was reportedly the first American to earn a billion dollars in a single year. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930, he emigrated to the United States in 1956 and became a citizen five years later. He made his fortune managing investment funds.
Forbes magazine ranked him this year as the 37th richest person in the world, with an estimated $6.9bn fortune.
Prosecutors said the case dragged on because Swiss authorities took years to respond to requests for information. Defence lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the case should be thrown out because it took so long to bring to court.
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