The June 14 issue of the Washington Post reports that, the highest court in France (the Court of Cassation) upheld a conviction for insider trading against billionaire anti-gun zealot George Soros. This decision comes on the heels of a March 2005 ruling by a French Appeals Court, which upheld the same charge and subsequently fined Soros 2.2 million euros.
In this week’s ruling, the high court ruled that a new fine would be issued - adjusted to reflect Soros’s profits - and it ordered the case returned to the appeals court to clarify the amount.
Contrary to his November 2002 testimony where he stated, "I have been in business all my life, and I think I know what is insider trading and what isn’t," at an appeals hearing last year, Soros acknowledged knowing about a Paris financier’s plans to take over a newly privatized French bank just days before he began buying its shares.
Soros gained notoriety during the 2004 Presidential election, where he reportedly spent more than $27 million of his personal fortune to bankroll the global gun-ban movement and attempt to elect John Kerry to the White House.