No Bubbly For You! George Soros, Abusive Employer

It must be tough being a billionaire who thinks he’s a god on a mission to save humanity from the error of its ways. But that’s just another day at the office for radical philanthropist George Soros, the preeminent funder of the American left. When a butler is vaguely connected to a bad decision made by another employee that didn’t really harm anybody, the Almighty Soros just cans the butler and his wife to make an example.

It turns out this wealthy champion of the bedraggled working classes is a nasty, vindictive employer. Twenty years ago Soros cashiered butler Patrick Davison for complaining after the cook used Château Lafite in the stew. (Château Lafite is currently going for $1,449 per bottle.) Davison had told the cook to use a much less expensive Chardonnary or Beaujolais instead. (Was it extravagant to use Château Lafite? Perhaps, but who knows what is the norm in the household of one of the world’s richest men.)

As the Guardian of London reported ( May 8, 1991):

But worst of all was the cooking wine. Mr Davison told the new cook she could use a Chardonnay or ‘a youngish Beaujolais’, but she demanded the best, and after seeing Mrs Soros she switched to Lafite at pounds 400-500 a bottle. ‘I thought it outrageous,’ he told the tribunal.

His wife was called to defend her cooking, which she described as ‘plain good’.

At one point the tribunal chairman, Andrew Bano, said: ‘If you go out these days, you don’t get roast beef and Yorkshire. You get a bit of rare duck breast in a dill sauce. Did you have any experience of that?’

Mrs Davison denied she melted the 18th century French silver in the dishwasher, then hid it in the safe.

Mr Davison said the Soroses had been good employers, but over three years Mrs Soros sacked five domestic couples and five nannies from her American household. […]

Soros lost in court after Davison sued him for wrongful dismissal. Mr. and Mrs. Davison agreed to accept £17,500 as compensation from their former employer. Apparently, Soros dragged the legal proceeding out to spite the Davisons. As the Press Association reported (Nov. 14, 1991):

He [Davison] accused Mr Soros of vindictively prolonging the case because money was no object to him. “It is not justice,” he said. “What they are after is everything we have got and more besides.” But Peter Wallington, solicitor for Mr Soros, denied the allegations.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this bubbly blast from the past the day before New Year’s Eve. May auld acquaintance be forgot…