George Soros, US billionaire philanthropist, has delegated control of his $25 billion business and charity enterprise to his son Alex, the BBC reports.
The financier of Hungarian descent said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that Alex had “earned it.”
The family’s fortune has been used to promote the “democratisation efforts” in numerous nations since the 1990s.
The specifics of the interview that was released on Sunday were confirmed to the BBC by a Soros representative.
One of the biggest funders to the US Democratic Party is George Soros. The 37-year-old history graduate Alex is the second-youngest among five siblings.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the vehicle handling the $25 billion for the family and the philanthropic foundation is called Soros Fund Management, and Alex is the sole family member on the investment committee.
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Alex became the chairman of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) last December. He also oversees his father’s “super PAC,” which is a US system for allocating money to political parties.
Although they have similar political beliefs in general, he told the Wall Street Journal that he is “more political” than his father and that he would work to defeat Donald Trump’s bid for a second term as president of the United States.
Alex was quoted as saying: “As much as I would love to get money out of politics, as long as the other side is doing it, we will have to do it, too.”
He claimed that the Open Society Foundations would continue to support liberal politicians and work towards the same causes as his father, including minority and refugee rights, criminal justice reform, and freedom of expression. Although pursuing a more domestic US-focused agenda, he also wants to incorporate voting rights, abortion, and gender parity policies.
George Soros was born in Hungary, where he witnessed the Nazi occupation as a young boy between 1944 and 1945. To survive, his family hid their Jewish heritage.
Following the war, he moved from Hungary to London before relocating to New York, where he amassed enormous wealth through hedge fund operations.
He rose to fame in the UK after successfully wagering $1 billion that the value of the pound would decline in 1992.
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He founded the Open Society Foundations (OSF) when the Berlin wall fell, with the aim to assist the installation of democratic governments in the former Soviet bloc. The OSF presently supports liberal causes, educational institutions, and human rights in more than 120 nations with an annual budget of around $1.5 billion.
The right wing has taken issue with some of its causes, such as addressing racial prejudice in the US court system.
In 2018, the OSF relocated its worldwide operations office from Budapest to Berlin in response to a public campaign against Soros personally and the activity of the organisation by the Hungarian government under Viktor Orban.
Alex Soros is known for his “high-flying” social life and attendance at high-profile events in Cannes and the Hamptons. He also joined the board of the human rights advocacy organisation Global Witness and has been to far-flung regions of the Amazon.
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