George Soros tricked a charity
As a 17-year-old, George Soros lied to a charity, tricking them into mailing him money every week while he went on vacation to the south of France.
Soros tells this story himself in his book “In Defense of Open Society”
At age 17 Soros left Communist occupied Hungary and went to London for college.
But life in London was a big letdown.
Soros was lonely and miserable. He worked his way through college as a railroad baggage loader.
After he broke his leg at the railroad, he reached out to the Jewish Board of Guardians to ask for financial support.
But they refused because their policy was to only support young people who were learning a trade, not students.
So Soros wrote the chairman of the board, saying he couldn’t get help anywhere else because he was working illegally and did not want to endanger his student visa.
But this was not true. Soros’ job at the railroad was perfectly legal.
Still, the chairman didn’t find out and sent Soros money every week.
After Soros was off of crutches and after he took a hitchhiking holiday to the South of France, he wrote the chairman telling him he no longer needed the assistance and thanked him for it.
Decades later when Soros set up his own charities, he chose to lean more towards a “no questions asked” model, so that recipients wouldn’t have to lie to get the assistance they needed.
To date, Soros has given away $32 billion to charity.