The heir to the Soros empire: a favourite of Russian liberals and a young playboy
The fighter for a reduction of the birth rate, George Soros (real name György Schwartz), has five children of his own and three official marriages.
His first wife was Annaliese Witschak, who bore Soros’ sons Robert, Jonathan and daughter Andrea. His marriage to American historian Susan Weber brought the billionaire two more sons - Alexander and Gregory.
The loving tycoon entered his third marriage a few years ago, his chosen one was the American with Japanese roots Tamiko Bolton: a businesswoman and yoga lover. This union was preceded by a number of romances, including with Russian models Anna Malova and Marina Zelle.
Such a busy personal life of the ageing billionaire - now George Soros is 91 years old - gave the media reason to assume that he is retiring from business. "The time to make money is over for me," he once told reporters. The question immediately arises: who will succeed the Soros empire?
In 2016, the Daily Mail named the man as "little-known billionaire heir Alex Soros”.
"Gorgeous models, NBA pals and 'hide-and-seek at his mansion: Welcome to the lavish life of investor George Soros' playboy son who's set to inherit $24bn," the Daily Mail wrote under this headline about the private life of Alexander, Soros Sr.'s fourth child.
But why him?
Four years earlier, in 2012, when the young Alexander Soros emerged from the shadows, Forward columnist Josh Nathan-Kazis wrote that Soros Jr. "has a very good chance of repeating his father's financial success”.
Alex's childhood was spent in a "privileged bubble" in a 14-room villa in Cato, New York. Friends and classmates called the estate "rich wealth". It had its own transportation for traveling around the territory, servants including a Chinese nanny Ping, a lam farm, and even a private movie theatre.
In an interview Alexander told the New York Times that he wanted to be a "normal child", play football with other children, eat big macs. Instead, he was offered vichyssoise (mashed onion soup).
He also complained about the lack of love and attention from his father: "I was terribly angry with him and felt unneeded. He was never around to talk about love." However, "there were other privileges" - communication with politicians and public figures - Soros Sr. trained his son from childhood.
After graduating from King Low Heywood Thomas school in Stamford, Alexander went to New York University, the next step was the University of California at Berkeley and a doctoral dissertation. His friends described him as a shy man, a "bookworm" who ran away from parties to read Baudrillard.
However, at the age of 22, his pictures hit the pages of the New York edition of Cityfile with notes about how the heir is relaxing in his father's house in Southampton, “drinking 40s while cruising on the family boat, and making out with babes”. Photos of a drunk Alex with "blurred eyes" were taken from his personal Facebook page.
As George Soros lamented, "Alexander is too open, and therefore came under attack”. According to Alexander, this was not only a shame for the family, but also a lesson. Soros Jr. made a correction and told the New York Times that now he "must destroy his own reputation and succeed, so as not to become another rich kid who squanders the foundation’s money”.
Soros Jr. is following in his father's footsteps. Together with his younger brother Gregory, he founded the investment firm Soros Brothers Investments, where he became a managing partner.
On April 5, 2012, while still a student at the University of California, Berkeley, Soros Jr. founded his own foundation, the Alexander Soros Foundation, and announced that he had decided to become a philanthropist. The goals of the foundation at that time for the general public sounded rather vague, but now we can guess what it was about.
Alexander himself, making a statement about the creation of his own fund, said that he would be engaged in creating "more experimental and perhaps controversial projects that larger mainstream foundations might not be able to take on”. The Wall Street Journal spoke about his initiative: "Mr. Soros prefers to spend his time and devote himself to progressive goals that may not have broad support."
"Like his father, he spends freely on liberal causes," the New York Times noted. Of course, the student did not have his own money, and the foundation had to exist at the expense of his father, and, therefore, adhere to his methods. The grant recipients are organisations that promote migrant rights and liberal expansionist migration policies.
The fact that Soros Sr. is making his son the successor becomes clear after Alex is appointed to one of the leading positions in the Open Society Foundation — the main brainchild of George Soros, with whose money the Soros empire imports democracy to other countries. "I am very happy that Alex has shown a serious interest in philanthropy. He plays an important role in the activities of the Open Society Foundation," his father commented on his appointment.
Influence Watch described Alex's work as follows: "Alexander Soros has created a foundation under his own name which gives awards to activists working to match environmentalism with human rights, sits on a number of left-of-center and non-political philanthropic boards, and is a major Democratic Party donor.”
To interfere in the affairs of other states under the pretext of "fighting for the environment" is so Sorosian! Soros Jr. makes no secret of it: "Philanthropy is not the answer to every problem, but it can be a catalyst for change," said the statement about the creation of the Alexander Soros Foundation.
The fact that the topic of investing in colour revolutions came to the liking of the "former fat kid" is evidenced by the abundance of yellow toy ducks in the photos on the Instagram page of Soros Jr. Probably, it was at his suggestion that the toy became a symbol of anti-government protests in Russia, Brazil, and Serbia.
It is very significant that in one of the joint photos taken in 2016, Alex with Russian oppositionists Pyotr Verzilov and the soloist of the scandalous punk band Pussy Riot Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, the latter also holds a yellow duck in her hand. A year later, the toy will pop up with Aleksey Navalny and will be very popular with his young followers.
The fact that one of the founders of the opposition publication “Mediazona” was a guest at Alexander's villa is indicated by an article about the turbulent life of the billionaire heir in the New York Post: "The son of 86-year-old investor George Soros — net worth: $24.9 billion — rented his party pad from shoe designer Vince Camuto. Overnight, it has become the hottest spot in the Hamptons — with everyone from Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova to new Knick Joakim Noah to model Caroline Vreeland snagging an invite."
Another social publication also told about Tolokonnikova's visit: "Nadezhda Tolokonnikova from Pussy Riot, who created an installation against Donald Trump using an electric chair, was also a guest this weekend at the so-called ‘Soros camp’ - Alex's $85 million mansion."
Apparently, Nadya did not try in vain, creating installations with an electric chair and shooting a provocative clip about Donald Trump. With a high probability, it was Soros Jr. who became one of the sponsors of “Mediazona” — Pyotr Verzilov did not deny that the absolutely unprofitable publication exists on grants from foreign investors.
According to some media reports, it was Alex's private jet that brought Verzilov to the Charite clinic in Berlin in 2018 after being poisoned with psychotropic drugs. The yellow duck in Navalny's hands also sends us to "Camp Soros", which confirms the connection of the Russian opposition with the main donors of anti-government rallies and colour revolutions - the Soros clan.
At the present time, when liberal ideas have led the United States to crises in domestic and foreign policy and have fed up with American society, George Soros decided to appoint his son as president of the Super PAC, an organisation that is supposed to support the Democratic Party in US elections.
At the same time, Alexander continues to hold a senior position in the Open Society. This means that the old man trusts his son more and more, and the son becomes more and more like his father.
On the young Soros’ Instagram page there are no more incriminating photos of drunken parties and swimming pools filled with yellow inflatable ducks. There are joint photos with major politicians and public figures — "platinum content" passed down by inheritance.
Now Soros Jr. is not playing the role of a playboy and a representative of the golden youth, but of a politician and diplomat. “Alexander has a good chance of getting ahead of his famous father,” the Jewish centre wrote about the Soroses.
This means that in the near future, the name “Soros" will mean "a former plump bookworm" who came out of the shadow of dad, a billionaire heir, a sponsor of liberal trends, head of democratic funds and a generator of colour revolutions in sovereign states - Alexander Soros Jr.