Another Soros-type figure in Texas: Laura and John Arnold, oil billionaires

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In 2002, he founded Centaurus Advisors with $8 million—his last Enron bonus, paid out just days before the company filed for bankruptcy—in Houston, Texas, to invest in futures, options, and derivatives for coal, natural gas, and crude oil. Centaurus entered the public eye in 2006 when Arnold bet against the enormous hedge fund Amaranth Advisors, which predicted that natural gas prices would rise and lost $5 billion when the market proved otherwise. At its peak Centaurus managed some $6 billion before Arnold closed the fund and retired in 2012 at the age of 38, establishing the Laura and John Arnold Foundation with his wife—a former oil executive—soon after. His estimated net worth is $3.3 billion as of writing.

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Much of the Arnolds’ philanthropy has funded causes favored by the Left, such as ranked-choice voting, litigation against supposed Republican gerrymandering in congressional maps, and the eco-Right, groups infiltrating the conservative movement with a left-wing global-warming agenda. They have personally donated to numerous Democratic campaigns, the Democratic Party’s leading congressional political action committee (House Majority PAC), and both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns.

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