The much-hyped gold purchases by Quantum and Goldsmith, together with the Newmont deal, set the market alight. Soros was able to trigger a rush into the buying of gold, causing prices to rise more than 20% in four months, the highest level since 1991. Typically, once the suckers rushed in to push prices even higher, Soros and his friend Sir James Goldsmith secretly began selling gold at a huge profit.

By August of that year gold fell to $368, more than $40 below its peak of $400,50. The London Sunday Times pointed an accusatory finger at Soros, claiming he had sold two to three million ounces.

Soros is very anti-German. In June 1993 he personally led an assault on the German deutschmark, unhinging the currency and further weakening the West European markets. By late 1993 Soros was infesting a growth list of countries in Ibero-America, to their cost.

In more recent times economies in the Far East have also degenerated into sharp recessions, devaluation, debt, default and bankruptcy, not least because of Soros. In 1997 Soros and other currency pirates attacked the Thai baht, the Malaysian ringget and the Japanese yen. Soros insists that his role in the collapse of Far Eastern currencies has been over-stated: but the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, singled him out specifically as the prime cause of the crisis in Malaysia’s economy.

In May 1998 the Russian rouble again came under what The Wall Street Journal described as "a heavy assault by financial speculators led by Soros." Panicking at the threat of wholesale capital flight, the Yeltsin administration raised interest rates on its government bonds, known as GKOs (or "gekkos") from 20% to 50% to 80%.

Within a month, the Russian economy was on the brink of breakdown. GKO banks were now paying what even some investors termed an "insane" interest rate of 150%. By now, millions of Russian workers had gone unpaid for almost a year, Russian troops were being fed surplus dogfood. But no matter. Soros, together with Goldman Sachs, the giant US-based investment bank noted for its close ties to US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin (its once and reported future chairman) were buying up, by the bagful, Russia’s foreign debt, to a reported US$23 billion.

In an editorial headlined "How The Rich Get Richer with IMF Funding," The Wall Street Journal, 14.7.98, commented: "Just how did the IMF get into the business of using US taxpayers’ money to advance (such) capital flight from Russia?" According to Wall Street speculation, the answer lies in the unpublished interests Soros shares with Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and Goldman Sachs with Rubin.

On August 13, 1998, world financial markets were again thrown into renewed turmoil after Soros once more spectacularly intervened in the Russian economy. In a signed letter to the London Financial Times, he warned of a "meltdown" in Russia and called for a 15% to 25% devaluation of the rouble. Not only did he cause mayhem on the world’s financial markets, but he sparked both devastating financial and political crisis in Russia, resulting in the collapse of the rouble. But Soros is not infallible, as he himself is the first to admit. This little lot reportedly cost him US$2 billion.

Anyone else pulling such diabolical stunts would go to jail. But not multi-billionaire Mr Soros. Were the Western leaders truly serious about stemming the meltdown and restoring their economies they would crush Soros and prosecute both he and his various central bank accomplices. Instead, they prefer to harass Pinochet.

Now for Soros, "the international philanthropist of our age." In 1979, he launched an Open Society Foundation, so named in honour of Karl Popper. There are now Soros foundations in 31 countries, all funded by his investment company, the Quantum Fund. Using his usurious gains in the global shakedown, he has doled out large sums of money for a variety of causes. According to his own PR flaks, each year he gives away some $300 million through a network of 1 000 employees in countries spread from Haiti to Mongolia.

In 1993 a R45 million Open Society Foundation to "promote democracy" was founded in South Africa. At the time of its launch, the OSF board members were: Tony Heard, Dr Mamphila Ramphele, Alex Boraine, Johannesburg Star editor Peter Sullivan, Helen Zille and chairman Van Zyl Slabbert. Study those names and you will see where the bias rests.

Nor did his "great philanthropy" save us from a currency mugging. On Friday, June 26, 1998, Soros was named as the ringleader behind the dramatic plunge in the value of the rand against major currencies.