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Greatly exaggerated: financier George Soros lives to read his obituary - but it may left him feeling worse for wear

 

Adam Sherwin
Friday 19 April 2013 17:01 BST
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George Soros pictured in 2012
George Soros pictured in 2012

Reports of George Soros' death have been greatly exaggerated. But the financier is unlikely to be flattered after Reuters prematurely published an obituary which described him as "predatory".

An error at the international news agency, which prides itself on its accuracy, resulted in a pre-prepared obituary of the Hungarian-born investor appearing on its website on Thursday night.

The article was pulled after 30 minutes but news of its contents had already spread. "Soros, who died XXX at age XXX, was a predatory and hugely successful financier and investor, who argued paradoxically for years against the same sort of free-wheeling capitalism that made him billions," it read.

Soros, 82, known as "the man who broke the Bank of England" for selling short the British pound in 1992, helping to drive the UK out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, was described as an "enigma, wrapped in intellect, contradiction and money."

A Reuters statement said it had "erroneously published an advance obituary of financier and philanthropist George Soros. A spokesman for Soros said that the New York-based financier is alive and well. Reuters regrets the error."

Famous figures whose obituaries have appeared prematurely include Alfred Nobel and Steve Jobs, whose "obit" was inadvertently published by Bloomberg news in 2008, three years before the Apple founder's death.

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