By: V4 Agency
Open Society Foundations will be guided into the future by Lord Mark Mallock-Brown, an old ally and friend of US stock market speculator George Soros. The two wealthy businessmen have had a good relationship since the 1990s, and they both played their part in running a joint anti-Brexit campaign.
US stock market speculator George Soros has announced on Twitter that Patrick Gaspard, the president of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) is leaving the organisation. According to speculation, Gaspard will join US President-elect Joe Biden’s team. With his resignation, Soros loses an important ally who, for instance in June, took part in an anti-police demonstration in New York.
Gaspard will be succeeded by Soros’s old ally and friend, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, a British national.
“I have known and worked closely with Mark for more than three decades, from supporting opposition to the Pinochet regime in Chile, to bringing relief to the people of Sarajevo and Bosnia, to setting up the International Crisis group together … Mark is deeply familiar with Open Society’s work and shares my vision of a political philanthropy that is focused and prepared for the future”, George Soros wrote in a statement.
Malloch-Brown said he was “committed to working with [Soros] to make sure we stay faithful to his original vision and values for the Foundations.”
The British diplomat is still co-chair of the International Crisis Group. The organisation also enjoys the support of the Soros network, having received more than 4.2 million dollars from them in the fiscal year ending on 30 June.
The collaboration between Soros and Malloch-Brown dates back to the 1990s. The British diplomat served as vice chairman of the board of Refugees International in Washington and, from 1993 to 1994, as a member of the Soros Advisory Committee on Bosnia.
They became such close friends that when Malloch-Brown moved to New York as a UN diplomat in the early 2000s, he became Soros’s neighbour. According to a 2005 report by The New York Sun, Soros offered him a house – owned by him – next to his own estate in the village of Katonah, Westchester County. Malloch-Brown paid 10,000 dollars a month for the five-bedroom building. The 120-thousand-dollar annual rent was almost equal to Malloch-Brown’s annual net salary as undersecretary general.
The Briton’s savings, including those from his time as a political consultant, were enough to cover the rent, explained William Orme, a spokesperson for the United Nations Development Programme.
“They are good friends,” he added.
In 2002, Soros and Malloch-Brown held a joint press conference on how developed countries could use the instruments created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help poor countries.
Soros never let go of Malloch-Brown’s hand. In May 2007, Malloch-Brown was appointed vice-president at Quantum Fund and vice-chairman at OSF, while he also held a senior position at Soros Fund Management.
Malloch-Brown’s career was marred by a number of scandals. In 2013, his firm called FTI Consulting settled a lawsuit launched by Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz out of court. The mining firm BSG Resources claimed that Malloch-Brown’s relationship with George Soros meant he was “collusive” with leading critics of BSGR’s activities in Guinea. FTI paid 90 thousand euros in damages.
Soros and Malloch-Brown can also be linked through an organisation called Best for Britain. The pro-Remain group, headed by Malloch-Brown as chairman, received a donation of 400 thousand pounds from George Soros. As reported by the Independent, Best for Britain intended to target MPs and push them to vote against a final deal on Brexit, triggering another referendum.
In addition, Malloch-Brown has so far served as the chairman of Smartmatic, a company implicated in voter fraud. Founded by Venezuelans, Smartmatic manufactures electronic voting technology.
The company’s name also came up in connection with the Dominion voting machines used in this year’s US presidential election, but both firms deny any ties with each other.
Sidney Powell, a former member of the US president’s legal team, pointed to a connection between Dominion and Smartmatic.
“I’m sure they’re trying to distance themselves from each other, but the fact is that the Dominion machines run the Smartmatic software and/or parts of the key code of it. And that’s what allows them to manipulate the votes,” Powell told Fox News.
Even four years ago the fact voting macnines in 16 states were supplied by George Soros’s ally enjoyed wide media coverage.